With all the recent religion threads, I thought I'd offer a fresh subject of discussion.

From a religious point of view man has had religion since creation. Obviously other animals don't have religion because they are inferior to us.

Religion from an atheist's point of view was crafted by man simply to try and explain the world. So if this is the case, how advanced were humans when the first signs of religion started? Was it fairly recent with the invention of writing or does it have origins even before the discovery of fire? This then leads to why don't other advanced species have signs of religion, or do they?

I have my own thoughts on all of this but I'd like to see what you guys think first.

Well the majority of users I'm expecting to respond will be atheist so I didn't waste too many words on the religious side of things. The immortal soul is  defiantly important.

Only dogs have souls.

lol

Communication. We don't really know what they are saying, but it's probably not religion related. If you think it is, then you should study it and prove it. However cats are pretty stupid and your time would be better spent on gorillas or dolphins. Or you could study history and try to determine religion doesn't form till a species has more advanced communication.

'This then leads to why don't other advanced species have signs of religion, or do they?"

What other advanced species are you talking about?


Relgion is something I don't spend time researching, however I think religion dates back further than we think.

For example when I was at school (so many years ago now lol), i learned that the indignous people (aboriginies who island hopped) who lived in Australia approx 40,000 years ago (probably the earliest bone findings) had things they worshiped as gods. The "dreamtime" stuff about how our spirits belong in this life and after life through dreaming. Most these stories talked about creation, animals etc.. From memory they also had a similar story to noahs ark about huge floods (not sure what the full story was).

To be honest that is about all I remember, so don't want to write anything further that may be totally wrong.

Modern religion probably dates back to the egyptians/persian times and has since evolved from those stories. ie chrstianity, islam and hinduism all seem to have similar stories in them, which had varied over time. e.g angels vs people with powers living in another plain of existance.

Dolphins are considered the smartest but apes are really similar to man so both are good species to look at. For example if we find evidence of super ancient man (with similar advancements as modern gorillas) having simple religion, then gorillas should have a simple religion too. Basically we can prove religion is made up if other animals also have it, or give it some credibility if other animals don't.