I think we all know the role and importance religion has played in human societies. But when did mankind first begin to believe in God? And who were the first people to believe in God? How did it happen and why? Was it a sudden epiphany? Was a burning bush or some other divine event involved? Where is the earliest evidence of a human belief in a godhead? What was or is the earliest human religion?
IMO, belief in an "unseen" force started very early in the evolution of sapient hominid brains.
This probably is an extension of the *fight or flight* instinct when confronted with "unexplainable" phenomena*.
Nova had an episode which followed research of the behavior of common chimpanzee in the wild.
During a monsoon with heavy thunder, lightning and rain, they observed the troupe huddling together in a sheltered area. But the Alpha male was observed to respond to this obviously violent *attack* with a defensive/aggressive display in defense of his family and territory.
He began to run around a small clearing and swatting the bushes to see if anyone was hidden there, of course to no avail. Then he picked up a stick and began to pound the ground and tree branches to flush out the perceived enemy.
And finally, to the surprise of the observers he raised and shook his stick to the sky to show the unseen force (from above) which was making loud noises, bright flashes and was throwing water at him and his family, showing that he was prepared to defend his territory.
The researchers concluded that this might well be the first response to phenomena caused by an *unseen, but very powerful enemy*. A rudimentary belief in a god (an unobservable, undefined, unknowable force).
Much later, as the hominid brain gained in sophistication, these unexplainable phenomena were attributed to the first gods, rain gods, thunder gods, sun gods, etc., which were to be appeased with sacrifices in order to placate the anger of these gods.
These practices were orally passed on, each in a slightly different way, depending on the environment.
Still later, as knowledge of natural functions became better known, these gods were also applied to known communal phenomena of human behavior, such as the goddess of love, the god of war and the practice of moral behavior in accordance with the needs of these gods and the hierarchical order of the spiritual world with a single godhead ruling everything.
As natural phenomena were identified as natural functions, the lesser gods were dropped and only the concept of a single God who was causal to the universe, the earth, and humans and of course as we have only one example of intentional action in human behavior, the Godhead was believed to have human attributes, such as approval (God saw that it was good) and disapproval (the wrath of God) and the concept of *God's will be done".
With the replacement of oral communication with written communication we created the first books, which were then assembled by spiritual scholars, in accordance to their interpretation of the messages contained in the various early scriptures.
Thus the evolution of spiritual scriptures such as the Torah, the OT, the NT, the Quran, the Book of Mormons, and recently the Book of FSM, each progressively more
convoluted and speculative.
IMO, assigning gods to individual events might be a rudimentary form of science. Science speaks of Cause and Effect and Natural Laws, which govern these functions.
Science explains the natural functions of the early gods, by way of mathematical functions, slowly replacing all the named gods with mathematical equations, which today are applicable to all natural phenomena.
Except for the question of Original Causality, most Gods now have different (mathematical names), and this is why the concept of a single Godhead remains. We just have not yet found the mathematical equation of Original Causality, which would replace the term "God" Hence the expression "God of the gaps".
To me, all this means is that scripture cannot be held as scientific, but apart from that, scripture does hold some useful secular moral messages. If those messages could be culled from scripture, they might serve as secular philosophy, than Divine spiritual messages from a sentient and motivated Godhead..