Both hypotheses are baseless. There is no evidence there even was religion or belief before 2000 BC. It is illogical to assume either of these hypotheses carried any weight at all.
Sorry, but are you seriously saying that there were no religions BEFORE 2000 BCE?
What of the 3rd millennium BCE (Bronze Age) religions of Egypt and Sumer/Akkad?
Amun, Atum, Re, Hathor, Horus, Osiris and Isis, Ptah, Khnum, etc, were all worshipped in the 3rd millennium, as well as in Bronze Age Egypt of the 2nd millennium BCE and in Iron Age Egypt of the 1st millennium BCE.
Heck, there are evidences that Horus, Seth, Hathor, Wadjet, Nekhbet and Neith were worshipping before the 1st dynasty (about 3100 BCE), known as the Predynastic Egypt.
Predynastic Egypt is dated from about 4000 BCE to about 3100 BCE, when there were two kingdoms of Egypt:
- Upper Egypt (southern kingdom)
- Lower Egypt (northern kingdom, the Nile Delta)
Despite the Egypt being divided politically and culturally, they were united in their religion, because those deities existed before Egypt unification in 3100 BCE, and survived the unification.
Egypt in the Predynastic period coincided with Egypt in the Chalcolithic period, when they were still using stone tools but have discovered how to make copper tools. Hence the Chalcolithic period is also known as the “Copper Age”.
Chalcolithic period is a transitional period between the Neolithic period and Bronze Age.
Though more primitive than the Bronze Age Egypt, the artworks found in Predynastic have some of the same symbols on the animals, like hawk/falcon (Horus), serpent (Wadjet) and vulture (Nekhbet) wearing the same crowns as their Bronze Age counterparts. Horus was worshipped both in the north (Lower Egypt) and south (Upper Egypt), wearing the red crown (deshret) and white crown (hedjet) in respective kingdoms. In respective kingdoms, were also the papyrus plant and lotus plant, more symbols of north and south.
In Mesopotamia, they also have the Chalcolithic period (Copper Age), which began around 4000 BCE to about 3100 BCE, which was the start of Jadet Nasr period (c
3100 - 2900 BCE). This time frame (
4000 - 3100 BCE) is called Uruk period, because at that time, the city of Uruk was flourishing during this period as the largest city in the world, from 3400 to 2700 BCE.
Uruk period was also known as the Proto-Sumerian period, because of the development of proto-Sumerian cuneiform began in mid-4th millennium BCE, and Jemdet Nasr marked the beginning of Sumerian civilisation (
3100 - 2900 BCE).
Bronze Age in Mesopotamia, is similar to that of Bronze Age in Egypt (
3100 - 1000 BCE).
Uruk played an important role in the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, because Gilgamesh was the king of Uruk, and though his story is mythological or legendary, he is believed to have lived historically in 27th century BCE, as one of the king of the 3rd dynasty of Uruk. And the earliest myth of Gilgamesh (or Bilgames, as he is known) is found in 5 Sumerian poems, possibly written in 22nd or 21st century BCE, that predated the Epic.
An (Babylonian Anu), Innana (Ishtar), Enki (Ea), Enlil (Ellil), Utu (Shamash) have all appeared in Sumerian poems.
But An and Inanna have older history, dating back to the Uruk period (4th millennium BCE). We know this because of the city Uruk was divided into 2 districts, dedicated to these sky deities: Eanna District and Anu District.
In the Anu District is the Anu Ziggurat, built about 4000 BCE. Around 3000 BCE, the White Temple dedicated to An, was built on this Ziggurat.
In the Eanna District, 5 temples, most of them were dedicated to Inanna, were built between 3600 and 3100 BCE. The Stone-Cone temple is the earliest temple of Inanna, built in c 3600 BCE.
The whole points of these history, is to show that different civilisations, have different religions, that predated your absurd claim that religion only started in 2000 BCE.
The bible also make claims that Egypt and Uruk (which some translations called Uruk “Erech”, didn’t exist until after the Flood. But archaeologically Egypt and Uruk (Erech) predated 2000 BCE.
Heck, the first Egyptian pyramid was the Step Pyramid of Djoser, built in the necropolis Saqqara. Djoser was the 1st king of 3rd dynasty (Old Kingdom), reigning from 2686 to 2667 BCE. The pyramid was a symbol of Re’s ladder or stair that he used to ascend his the sky and board the sun boat (Solar Barque). The dead king in his afterlife, will ascend the sky via the pyramid and become a crewman to Re’s Solar Barque.
The pyramids were also symbol of the very first land that rose from primeval water, Nu, like a mound or hill. The mound created by Re was the integral part of the Sun cult in Heliopolis.