Whitmarsh suggests: “Believers talk about atheism as if it’s a pathology of a particularly odd phase of modern Western culture that will pass, but if you ask someone to think hard, clearly people also thought this way in antiquity.”
Well considering that humans evolved from a much earlier Primate ancestor similar to the rest of the Apes, and apes do not have religions/religious beliefs of any real shape or form then it is ONLY logical that the early humans were Atheists at the onset of their evolution.
Imo, ANY religious belief system/s comes about when someone sees the opportunity to to enhance their social standing, etc, by 'persuading' the rest of the group/clan that they are able to contact the invisible 'higher power' that 'controls' the world around them thus they begin to get the best of everything their group/clan has to offer, etc, etc.
From then on it becomes in-grained into the minds of the peoples that they MUST care for and appease both the so-called 'Agent' of this Higher Power and the Higher Power itself or they will suffer the consequences at, possibly, so later undetermined time.
As the old Political saying goes, " feed the people Fear, keep the people afraid and you CAN do anything you want them and they, usually, will NOT object."
Atheism is natural.. Religion is (hu)man-made...
We aren’t born with religion it has to be planted in our brains, therefore the default human position has to be disbelief. Our earliest ancestors took to worshipping the sun because it is life giving, there’s a logic to it, and worshipping and deifying other heavenly bodies, seasons and animals all makes some kind of sense, however it’s also logical to assume that there must always have been those who dissented and were atheist, as this study of ancient texts confirms. The much more recent worship and belief in one god and creator is much less logical, and quite frankly it baffles me how it has got such a grip and control of people’s minds, even with the seemingly otherwise more intelligent.
Thank you for the reminder. recently a friend and I got into a discussion about 'animism' so I thought I would look into it a bit further.
@JackPedigo Interesting that the commentary was by a guy with a Northern Ireland accent!
@Marionville Interesting, but didn't he say it was everywhere?
@JackPedigo yes...but I was just surprised to hear his accent. I’m not disputing the message.
And of course, even before the culture of the classical world, many societies, especially those in the hunter gatherer stage of social life, did not have gods, animism and ancestor worship being far more common. Gods are themselves quite a resent development.
We’ve always been around, it’s part of being human.
Sounds reasonable but the early Christians were persecuted not for their beliefs but for refusing to worship the Roman gods so forced obedience was there before monotheism became the norm.
Actually those 'tales' of Xrstian persecutions in Ancient Rome are just that, fairy stories, since the Romans NEVER forced those they conquered to accept and worship their Pantheon of Deities, in actual fact, the Romans were well known for adopting and adapting the Gods, etc, of others into their own belief systems.
The cults of the Egyptian Deity Isis is but one example as is the Mithras cults, the Ishtar cults and almost countless mere besides.
@Triphid This was in Rome, not in the greater empire. Of course when the Christians took over their persecution of the "pagans" was much worse.
Read Catherine Nixey's book "The darkening age (the Christian destruction of the classical world).
I used to think that the missing noses from Roman statues was due to wear and tear over the centuries but it was done deliberately by the early Christians. Philistines
@Moravian If you read the numerous accounts of the Roman Empire, they were quite tolerant of the belief systems of the peoples they conquered.
Yes, it IS claimed that the Romans had a 'bug-bear' of a problem with the Celtic Druids but they Romans actually 'adopted/adapted' many of Celtic Gods, etc, into their belief systems as well.
Historically, the BIGGEST Haters of any other belief systems until the rise of Islam have been the Christians without even the shadow of a doubt.
@Triphid The desecration of the Aboriginal sites by Rio Tinto Zinc has been widely reported here. I saw it compared to the Taliban's destruction of Buddhist monuments but the Christians were doing this long before anyone else. The book I mentioned lists in great detail how they tried to erase the classical world of Rome and Greece.
Yes I was just reiterating my comment in my first post.
Persecution of Christians was not as widespread as they would like you to believe, Being thrown to the lions etc, but it did happen
Interesting article ... thanks for this share! It seems likely that there have always been skeptics and doubters who appear to be 'wired' to call into question the opinions of the majority. But these doubting Thomases may be tolerated only for so long. The majority demands compliance!
Makes perfect sense to me. I'm sure in some societies atheists existed, but if you came out of the closet you could be killed for it.
The Middle East comes to mind there.
@SeaRay215ex Exactly.