When and where did atheism first start ?

[Belacqua]

Val was quite correct that if X were natural for humans then they wouldn't need to be taught it.

It is natural for children to acquire language. 
They are born without it. They get it through a combination of just picking it up and people actively teaching it to them. 
It is natural for a baby to have no language. It is natural for a 5-year-old to have language. 

I don't think that religion is some evil and unique category. We could say that it is natural for babies to be born with no idea of how the world works. As with language, it is natural for them to develop ideas about how the world works. Partly through experience, and partly through being taught. 

Now suppose a little kid asks why his grandma has a picture of an old man on her wall, over a gold box (which we know is a Buddhist altar, though the child doesn't know this). The answer might be:

1) because it's a nice way for her to remember her late husband, or 
2) because she's talking to her husband in heaven. 

In this way the child develops an idea about how the world works -- either with or without a "religious" idea. 

I am NOT saying that it is good for a child to be taught religious ideas. I do think it's good AND natural for a child (who is born without such knowledge) to acquire knowledge of language, math, how to behave in groups, and how the world works. The details he or she learns about all of these subjects will depend on the kind of society he or she is born into. 

When that child is grown up, it would be unnatural for him or her to have no knowledge of language, math, how to behave in groups, or how the world works. We may wish that his thoughts about that latter category weren't religious, but that's not something we usually get to decide.

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Why would language, math, or how to behave in a group not have to be taught?
Especially math lol that definitely has to be taught. But language and social skills are also taught. If a person was raised completely secluded from other people they would not know how to act in a group and at the very least their behavior would be considered weird by other people. If you never talked to or around a baby they would not learn your language. If language does not have to be taught, then why doesn’t everyone speak every language?

Thank you, this is what I'm saying. 

Just because a baby is born without something, doesn't mean it is natural for humans to remain without it.