Spiritualism is as old as humanity itself.
Likely even older. At least, depending on what you mean by "spirituality".
There was no time before religion where people "thought it up"
Euh.... before a religion originated, it didn't exist.
Therefor it had to be thought up, which originated it.
It's been built into the way we humans perceive the world from our earliest perceptions of the world.
Yes, humans have an instinctive tendency to be superstitious and engage in cognition errors. Not just humans actually, many animals have this tendency. It's a survival mechanism. Even pigeons are superstitious. So what?
We would beseech our prey to do it's part before the big hunt, and then we would thank it's spirit for forfeiting it's body to us, after. Because in giving up it's life it was giving us life. We would thank the sun for returning to us every morning to give us heat and light, again. And the river for bringing us fresh water to drink and for carrying away our waste. And so on.
Indeed. And this phenomenon is known as "infusing agency" in otherwise random and/or natural events.
It's the same underlying psychological trait that makes cats (and humans, and other animals) jump away when hearing a sound in the bushes. We assume it's a dangerous predator out to get us, while it might be just the wind. We
infuse agency into the event. It helps survival.
If it IS a predator, those that immediately run might live to see another day. Those that stick around and "investigate", are lunch.
Again: nothing special and sufficiently explainable without having to resort to wild-a$$ assumptions about super beings.
We lived in a world filled with spirits that we needed to get along with, to survive.
No. We
assumed we lived in a world filled with spirits.
People attributed tides and storms to Poseidon. But there's no such thing as Poseidon and tides and storms are simply natural occurrences.
There were things we believed we must do, and must not do, to maintain their allegiance and cooperation. This is how religions were developed. They were about learning the rules of a world infused with and controlled by spirits.That's where the "rules" came from.
Nope. The "rules" came from within ourselves. Just because ancient people tended to attribute everything and their mothers to these "spirits", doesn't mean there actually is such a thing as "spirits".
A combination of spiritualism and necessity were the origin of social constructs ethics, morality, and laws.
Just necessity is enough. Religion was, at best, just a vehicle.
