OK, LaurAnge, it most definitely is a debatable subject, not set in stone. But, I am not the one who first offered this explanation. I simply read alot. I mean alot.
Also, see M’Clintock and Strong’s “Cyclopædia” and the New Catholic Encyclopeadia under those scriptures or the topics “Canaanites” “Babylon” “Egyptian Dieties” “Baal” and others. If you want to get a deeply religious view, look in Insight on the Scriptures by the WBTS. (You don’t have to be a JW to get one, but you will have to talk to one…)
Unger’s Bible Dictionary, page 912, observes: “Canaanite religion with its orgiastic nature worship, the cult of fertility in the form of serpent symbols, sensuous nudity and gross mythology are revealed in their stark reality in these texts [the ones discovered at Ras Shamra discussed in the thesis cited above]. No longer can critics accuse the God of Israel of injustice in ordering the extermination of these debilitating cults.”
Sure, it’s VERY open for debate, and I did not mean to dogmatically state any of this. I realise that in religous studies, anybody with an axe to grind can find many things that seem to support them. But, I don’t think this is an issue that has been settled yet, and so it does stand as one possible answer to the OP.
Sorry if I misled anyone, I usually save that for GD threads. 