What came first, the atheist or the theist?

[Paul the Human]

I think some of Spencer's confusion is coming from the fact that the word 'atheist' did not exist before the word 'theist'. That is very much true. However, before there were theists, no one believed in god(s). That lack of belief, in today's language, is 'atheism'. Just because those pre-theism people did not have the word 'atheist' at their disposal, does not mean that they were not atheists. It only means they did not have or need the word 'atheist' yet. Which means that, in answer to the question posed by the OP... the atheist came first... but the atheist wasn't called the 'atheist' until after the coming of the theist.

Make sense now? o.o