[THEISM
Research among African cultures
who remain in a Bronze Age mode of oral-based tribal traditions
reveals that some 4% of the population become shamans,
i,e, seers, healers, herbalists, rainmakers
Their vocation is never voluntary
psychic experiences are thrust upon them
via lucid dreams
hallucinations
trances
alien tongues
fits and convulsions
that result in prophecies
all of which if not responded to
by seeking out a shaman adept (Baba)
and becoming apprentice neophytes
and receive the type of training that allows them to understand and discipline
their involuntary super-natural experiences
the invasion of their consciousness by these psychic forces
can lead to permanent psychological dysfunction
Because African culture has no scientific explanation
for the abnormal behavior of this 4% of their number
the strength of supernatural conviction
exhibited by the trained shamans
added to their reliance for survival on the vagaries of the weather
was powerful enough to convince the entire population
that invisible forces greater and more mysterious than man
control the universe
and determine the fate of mankind
So theism remains a religious conviction throughout rural Africa
AGNOSTICISM
All of preliterate Bronze Age Europe and Asia
existed once under the same totemic worship
that Africa still experiences.
All were Theists
With the development of scripture some 6000 years ago
the original oral-based pagan system of multiple gods was codified
and the populace regimented under orthodox systems of a single Godhead
which served to unify the clan totems into national systems of government under a paramountcy.
Shamans became scribes and priests who administered and interpreted the scriptures.
Those 4% of mystics who did not bow to the written creed were outcast and labeled as witches and burned at the stake
Universal theism was never challenged for the next 3500 years
Around 500 B.C
all the generations invested in learning the mechanics of grammar
via the spread and study of the orthodox scriptures
excited the intellectual potential of the human psyche
This lead to the emergence of scientific rationality
which questioned the basic tenets of theology
As scientific inquiry progressed over the next 25 centuries
orthodox scriptures gradually lost their indoctrinate hold on the collective psyche.
The strange psychotic behavior of the 4% of the population who continued to experience para-psychological consciousness was analyzed and defined and labeled
as hysteria
and schizophrenia
And so it was that most of the literate world
not entirely convinced by either religion or science
became Agnostic
ATHEISM
Some 20% of educated people
become out-right Atheists
basically as a psychological reaction
against dogmatic theists
Atheism is dysfunctional in that it presents
neither a constructive proposal
or healthy attitude to the general weal
Man is better balanced
with some degree of a positive attitude toward spirit
ADDENDUM
In 1974 a Zulu shaman accompanied Dr Addiran Bishieur
Director of the Museum of Man and Sceince in Johannesburg,
on a tour though the psychiatric wards of a major hospital
The shaman was able to point out every hysteric and schizophrenic
without asking for a single symptom
He stated that their ailments were spiritual blockages
and that he could cure them within a few months
Hysteria and Schizophrenia continue remain incurable psychotic conditions to this day
Some 4% suffer from them