Which was first: Atheism or Religion?

[Mystical]

Atheism is often taken to mean an absence of theistic beliefs. But most of us agree that it also implies the capacity for a belief system-- otherwise, my beagle would be atheist, or my big toe.

It seems to me that superstition is more fundamental to organisms than the capacity to hold a cognitive world view. Therefore, I'd say that a kind of pseudo-religious mentality can be seen in mammals and birds at least, but that it wouldn't really make sense to say most of them have the capacity for world view that would earn them the term "atheists."

I would expect that as pre-humans developed, they would have had superstitious feelings first, and that as language developed, they struggled to formulate those vague feelings into words. That would have been the start of religion. In other words, there was probably never a time in which fully-developed humans didn't have superstitious beliefs and express them linguistically.


Therefore, I'd argue that religion preceded atheism.

Precisely my sentiments. Well said