Have you come to question whether there even is a god, gods or spirits? You are not alone ... you are part of a long tradition. This 3 part documentary focuses mainly on the Western traditions of religion but there are equally strong atheist schools and traditions in the East.
Atheism can be the rejection of belief in the existence of deities or the position that there are no deities, the word originating from the Greek ἄθεος (atheos), meaning "without god(s)". However, it is, in itself, not a belief system. There is no one ideology, or set of beliefs or behaviors, to which all atheists adhere. It's history, in the history of thought, is rarely taught or celebrated. Nor its leaders, such as Baron d'Holbach, remembered.
One view of the origins of many religions the world over, currently arising from the study of archeology, is that it arose from a misunderstanding of how the weather worked. The earliest gods appear to all related to the effects of climate; gods of wind, rain, storm and so on, who held human life in their hands.
The rise of monotheism, in contrast to pan- or polytheism, is a whole other story.
Atheism can be the rejection of belief in the existence of deities or the position that there are no deities, the word originating from the Greek ἄθεος (atheos), meaning "without god(s)". However, it is, in itself, not a belief system. There is no one ideology, or set of beliefs or behaviors, to which all atheists adhere. It's history, in the history of thought, is rarely taught or celebrated. Nor its leaders, such as Baron d'Holbach, remembered.
One view of the origins of many religions the world over, currently arising from the study of archeology, is that it arose from a misunderstanding of how the weather worked. The earliest gods appear to all related to the effects of climate; gods of wind, rain, storm and so on, who held human life in their hands.
The rise of monotheism, in contrast to pan- or polytheism, is a whole other story.