Good points here, only may I suggest that the false deity is Mammon, the Babylon god of wealth and status. People prominently sacrifice themselves and their children to this god to this day. And we have its messenger, aka TV, to keep people informed of Mammon's current "promises" aka traps and demands.

Those in power, under Mammon's influence, destroy millions of lives -- as well as the natural resources that the Creator put here to sustain life --in order to gain money and status. Most people, informed by TV, put up with this in order to get a few crumbs. The mark on the head is the mindset which values money and status over everything, and the mark on the hand is the actions one takes in the service of money and status. The worship of Mammon is established even in the churches, eg, the Catholic practices of selling indulgences, Calvinism, prosperity gospel, etc. It has been almost from the beginning, and is amplified now due to increased population density and increased access to mass media.