RE: What came first, the atheist or the theist?
July 23, 2010 at 7:23 pm
(This post was last modified: July 23, 2010 at 7:24 pm by Oldandeasilyconfused.)
Quote:Man has been around an estimated 150,000 years The earliest known theism is only some 10,000 years old.
True enough, but I think possibly a bit misleading.My understanding is that shamanistic animism has been around for tens of thousands of years. That suggests people have been giving 'spiritual' explanations to confounding natural things and events for a very long time.Eg Australian aboriginal creation myths may be up to 50,000 years old.
Although Homo sapiens may have only been around for about 150 thousand years,sentient human beings may have been around for at least a million years. Homo erectus (up to1.8 million years) was using tools and fire