Which was first: Atheism or Religion?

[Tonus]

The cave man says "Ug! Show me the evidence!". He was unable to think beyond what he could sense.

He was also a slave to ignorance. If he saw lightning, he might ascribe it to an angry god or demon. As he learned more about the world around him, those explanations were replaced by natural ones. But he never let go of the idea that the things he couldn't yet explain had to have a supernatural explanation. It's not that he learned to reason, it's that he won't let go of the intuition that has failed him time and again.

[ignoramus]

For those Christians who live in LaLa land.
Was Jesus a real human being? Yes?

Did he have body odour?
Did he wet fart every now and again?
Did he pick his nose?
Did he choke the chicken in private?

He was human wasn't he?
Would you worship a dirty old wog?

Go back to LaLa land you "homo ignoramus' " where everything is nice and fuzzy in your heads, and leave reality to us.

[MindForgedManacle]

Religion.

[IAmTheeWallrus]

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

Quite so!
Now we are getting somewhere.
It seems abundantly evident that much of scripture was written by non-believers interested in nothing more than influencing people actions.

“Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool.” Mark Twain


In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.
- Autobiography of Mark Twain

[pocaracas]

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

Which was first? Man or god?

[Clueless Morgan]

Atheism is the non-acceptance or the rejection of theistic claims. How could an atheist reject theistic claims if they haven't been invented yet?

IMO, and I'm no expert, nor have I studied this in depth (and I don't know how you could), I think it comes down to seeing agency where there is none (Michael Shermer's hypotheses about agenticity and patternicity). Animals see an unexpected movement nearby and bolt, assuming that some agency was responsible for that movement. I think in our human ancestors there was a period of time when this agency-detector began to spin out of control to the point where the Australopithecine or Homo ancestor didn't just read agency where there was one, they began attributing specific personalities to that agency (lightening gods and storm gods are angry, harvest gods are giving, sea gods are tempestuous) and developed the foundations of polytheistic mythic figures.

Just my opinion, though.

[JesusHChrist]

Which came first?

The lightning bolt or Zeus?

[Rampant.A.I.]

Frodo's law: in any thread saying there is no evidence of the supernatural, Frodo will claim there is.

If asked for the evidence, or how he distinguishes mythological supernatural creatures and deities from the only deity he believes exists, he will call it common sense and simply repeat the claim.

Several pages later, he will claim to have already provided a compelling argument. When asked to repeat the argument, he will claim he already presented it, and will not repeat it.

[pocaracas]

Frodo's law: in any thread saying there is no evidence of the supernatural, Frodo will claim there is.

If asked for the evidence, or how he distinguishes mythological supernatural creatures and deities from the only deity he believes exists, he will call it common sense and simply repeat the claim.

Several pages later, he will claim to have already provided a compelling argument. When asked to repeat the argument, he will claim he already presented it, and will not repeat it.

That looks about right!

[fr0d0]

And I had some respect for you pokie