Was there ever a time before religion?

Question

Has it always existed? How did it start?

Answer 1

the very first humans were not religious. But with Egypt, Mesopotania, india, china, and latin america of corse a type of religion was thought up. These were the VERY first civilations of man kind. and then the roman empire and blah blah blah. But the first civilations were polythesitic, they belifed in many gods. The roman catholic cruch invaded areas like northern europe and converted the people ie: the celts.

then the europeans came over to the americas and converted the native americans and the people of South America.

i learned that in world history. there was always a time where religion didn't rule the world and there will be a time after religion ruled the world.  

Answer 2

um.. for about 4.5 billion years?

Answer 3

Of course. Religion is man made.  

Answer 4

Yes there was a time before religion but mankind was not there.

When we had our first thoughts about what was around us in this world we created gods and demi-gods, monsters and myths to explain the way the world worked and the shamans were the high priests.

There was a time when God Himself instructed us on who and what He is. God has been instructing us ever since He first appeared to us.

Unfortunately far too many people haven't taken Him seriously. Many of them who did have used Him for their own agendas, and believe it or not .... but some of them actually believed they were doing God's work as they worked out their evil tasks!! Yeah I know; hard to believe eh? Someone would actually degrade God's word to do their evil. Who would have thought.....The good news is that there are people who know and live as God want's us to. I know that is hard to believe too, but it's true. There are acutally living human beings who don't care a whit for the religions of the world in His name but care more for doing what God wants of us. We are called Christians, we are called Righteous, we are called pagans(pagans being those who do not know of the Christ but do the best they can with what they have) we are also called a whole slew of dirty names as well. We are in a minority but it's enough to keep the world on an even keel until the Holy Spirit is taken out of this world. After that it won't matter a bit about religions until the Christ returns to stay.

Answer 5

You mean in the (pre)history of man, of course, not in the history of the universe.

Yes, before religion, there was Shamanism.

"We shamans come from the Stone Age. We have no religion. Religion is for those who can no longer see."

[Indra Doj Gurung, as quoted in 'Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas'.]

Re-ligion means a "binding-back". It seeks to bind man back to the state in which he can "see".

Answer 6

in order to have religion, you would need man to make it up.

Answer 7

Whatever exist today existed before too.

Answer 8

1.  No, it has not always existed.  Prehistoric man was not religious.

2. Not sure.  One view:  Freud believed that religion fulfills the most urgent needs of mankind - security, purpose, and stability in an apparently instable, purposeless, insecure world.  This is a view that I adhere to personally.  Here is an interesting video on the matter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHjhv6SOj...