What existed BEFORE the first religion?
If before religion the first people were… atheists, does that mean that atheists created the first religion?
Any ideas? Where does the need for a religion stem from? If the only way for a religion to exist is to grow into the mind of an atheist, does that mean anything about the truth inside the notion of religion in general?
As I understand it first came animism. Of course, they lived in nature with powers that were foreign to them all around them, had to relate to “them”, and so personified them. Personification created religion, as it animated and conflated natural forces into organized mental conceptions thought to represent invisible beings (like them) behind the powers of nature.
But what do I know. I wasn’t there.
And since pre-religion came before pre-history … we have no primary sources or records of pre-religion. We could say pre-religion was illiteracy … and would be right.
But I’m open to other theories.
Where’s a big gun philosopher when ya need one?
“If before religion the first people were… atheists, does that mean that atheists created the first religion?”
Lol, good one.
Evolution has given us an instinct for the numinous, no doubt for very good reasons. So the answer is, before the first religion, there were no humans.
Your mum clearly. Or at least your mum jokes. 
Uh huh. So the first religion existed in the mind of… whom?
Religion is simply a symptom of humanity’s unsuccessful first attempts at reasoning. We related to some humans because that seemed to work pretty well and thought we’d try the same stuff on our environment, as though it were humanlike. Then some of us realised that wasn’t working as well as if we treated our environment differently. Knowledge grew and we eventually got to where we are now, and we will presumably carry on going. The numinous is an encouragement, bred into us, to pursue this knowledge, whether directed toward the more primitive understanding or the more advanced version.
That’s a mechanical view that ignores the human capacity for the spiritual, which is clearly the true origin of religion.
It’s a mechanical view that explains the human capacity for the spiritual, which yes, is the origin of religion.
What is the evolutionary advantage in giving us a sense of the numinous? The obvious answer is that these feelings are produced by something real.
There is a theory out there that religions were born of ingestion of hallucinogenic plants.
Certainly evidenced in Hinduism by the sacred Soma spoken of in their Vedas.
Even people who aren’t off their faces have a sense of the numinous.
“God doesn’t exist, but is always near you.”
A sense for the numinous could just be a sense of awe and wonder for the mystery of the unknowns in nature. It drives us to invent religions but also to investigate nature in a more scientific vein.
I doubt there was ever a great period in human prehistory where we didn’t have religion (or some prototype religion precursor), so before the first religion there were no humans. Apes could certainly be called atheists since technically they don’t believe in God (AFAIK), but even if there were human atheists before the first religion, this would have to be atheists in the sense of not having even the concept of God (it makes little sense to say they would have ever thought “God doesn’t exist” before the concept of God had a chance to evolve).
But religion speaks not nothing but! How can the spiritual have its origins in the mechanical?
But it spirits that have gummed up the carburetor on my chainsaw … as in ethanol spirits.
I saw a documentary on the oldest cave paintings in the world, they were very artistic even a little abstract. What struck me also was that no-one had painted over the original paintings, which for me meant that there was a kind of reverence for the art. When we add that the images appear to be concerned with spiritual ideas about nature, at least that they were designed to shimmer under torchlight, then I am tempted to think those guys were off their trolley’s! Same with later stone age temples in Ireland and Britain etc.
magic mushrooms have a lot to answer for!
Gives a whole new meaning to the “stoned” age.
That’s what she said. 
Religion is a mob control method. Before religion brute force was used, then some lazy genius learned control by using a phenomenon that only they knew what was going on and could semi control it, then scared the crap out of folks by weaving a story that a god was on this person’s side and all had to obey him or her or face a hellish pain or death. I am guessing they used some useless member as an example…
Opium for the masses…