Theists often contend that belief in gods has always existed and that atheism is a later development. They say that atheism is nothing more than a rejection of theism, a desire to sin and party without fear of divine retribution.
We can’t possibly know what humans believed prior to recorded history. We can logically suppose that they were superstitious, inventing stories to explain the natural phenomena for which they had no better explanation. We can suppose that because we can imagine and empathize. We can imagine ourselves in their position and conclude that’s what we’d do.
We do know that for every god mankind has invented there have been those who didn’t believe in them. They may have lived in a country where that god was unknown or not worshiped. They may have simply not accepted the priest’s or shaman’s stories. For pretty much every unsubstantiated belief there are those who don’t buy it.
The non-belief in gods is a base state of thought. No child has ever been shown to be born with a belief in any divine entity. We all start out from a position of non-belief. Once we are told about gods or a particular god we can move into disbelief. Non-belief is born of ignorance, disbelief is born of knowledge.
