Which was first: Atheism or Religion?

[Whateverist]

I suspect animistic belief in totems, spirits, deities and so on would actually have preceded our development of symbolic language or the capacity for reason. Of course I don't claim to have any special expertise. Hard to know how anyone would research such a question. But if I'm right, then the first atheist was probably someone who managed to question the pervasive belief in such magical things.

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If atheism was first, then religion was created by atheists.

I think religion came very very soon after human brains developed the capacity for imagination and superstition.

And before they had the language to express their rejection of spiritualism.