Habenae Est Dominatus,
The problem you have, is in the title, “Belief in authority is a religion”, but it is far better put as. “Religion is a belief in authority.”
Simply put, you are saying that religion is a belief that there is a final authority to which many irrationally subscribe.
We agree.
However, the belief in the authority of government is not the same. Whereas all gods are myths and thus obedience to them is foolishness, the government is real and its deeds are reported hourly. For our taxes, we get what none of us could individually afford.
You accepted your parents as authority, and then your teachers and in adult life you recognised hundreds of “authority figures”. Humans are like that, they are tribal and social mammals who, for convenience accept order.
By choosing a government, the citizens give their approval to a new god and agree to be governed by their choice but also agree to keep an eye on the government/god for a few years. Citizens do not mind this state of affairs.
How often do you hear, “Oh, I got fed up of Yahweh he was useless at healing amputees, at the last election I voted for, and now worship, Poseidon.”?
There are those of us here who can live normal lives without gods, but there are none here (and I include you) who can live a “normal” life without a government. (At least not without massive inconvenience and a high chance of death.)
The citizens have another, similar fiction: money. Money is essentially worthless. A dollar note costs far less than a dollar to produce and everyone knows it. We agree to agree and the system works. We have a medium of exchange; a convenience. This token has confidence behind it, therefore it works.
A government has confidence behind it and therefore it works. The strange thing is that Yahweh has confidence behind him and he doesn’t work, but the blind masses, the sheep, the indoctrinated continue to make ridiculous excuses for him and still give him their confidence.
That I why I suggest “Religion is a belief in authority.” as a better title, because, as you now see, “Belief in authority is a religion” is false, and should be “Belief in an agreed authority is a necessary convenience for social mammals.”