Four Kinds of Atheists.

[imported_luckyme]

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Yes, the intelligent farmer may have figured out the process of fertilization over sacrifice, but there were still many things that were best left explained by a god.

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That doesn't explain the success of early godless cultures. Religion is socially based, we're crowd followers mostly.

We evolved a cause-effect viewpoint, as do animals, we think in those terms because 'it works'. Watch a chimpanzee during an approaching thunderstorm. The alpha hears 'something' crashing stuff around, so he runs toward it, threatening the 'shaker of trees'. Loud Clap, and he runs back and 'presents himself' to the obviously approaching Meta-Alpha. And we're off to the races.

Some cultures managed to break loose of the 'Meta-Alpha' mindset sooner than others, but it's such a powerful social tool in many ways that it isn't easy. Zen concepts fit into the discoveries of modern science better than any other approach, it's just a matter of when a culture arrives at accepting the universe as it is, if ever.