4000 – 1000 BC – The Sumerians: The gods that created us.

The Sumerian people arrived in the Mesopotamian region called Sumer around 4000 BC, they had a very complex society and carefully recorded the history of their gods, which as absurd as it may be, it is not as absurd as the religions professed today.

Their concept of god was simple: aliens, yes you read correctly, aliens. They believed that aliens from the planet Nibiru came to earth and planted the seeds of humanity, we can interpret that as an alteration of the humanoids' DNA from planet Earth. Their gods were both male and female and their main god was Anu the sky-god, and lord of all spirits and demons. The Sumerians believed in a heaven and in a hell or underworld.

They believed that these aliens gave mankind the power of communicating, writing, and basically thinking. The first writings found were from the Sumerians and we can say that their culture created an official and organized way of worship and religion. They needed a justification for humans to be the only animals on the face of the planet capable of communicating and creating. In the absence of an explanation for that which had no answer they created gods, but at least for them these gods were not omnipresent or omnipotent… they were bigger, stronger and more intelligent beings from a far away planet, who the Sumerians adored, but were beings that lived longer than humans but who were not immortal.

For more information go to www.crystalinks.com/sumergods.html

5500-4000 BC – the Badarian: The dawn of the gods.

The Badarian were a nomad tribe from Africa located in Upper Egypt; and the forefathers of what later became of the greatest and most impressive of all ancient history’s religions: the Egyptians.

There has been many debates about the Badarian beliefs and religious rites, nothing can be proven as the findings have not been too clear, however, among the things discovered is that the Badarian, even though they were nomadic, they buried their dead in a ritualistic manner – body pointing south, face pointing west. It is believed that mankind began burying their dead when they began to belief in an afterlife, trying to supply their loved ones with the necessary items for their journey to the afterlife, before they believed in life after death, humans did what other animals and few current tribes do: leave the bodies where they died. They buried their dead with ornaments representing animals, pottery and other amulets that coincide with some sort of spiritual/religious beliefs. The fact that the Badarian consistently buried their dead is enough to safely assume that they believed in the afterlife, but more concise proof is yet to be discovered. We can conclusively say that the Badarian were the predecessors of a systematic form of religion.

Humanity just created the afterlife, in an effort to comfort themselves for the loss of a loved one. The need to fill the void, left by their death, with the hopes of joining them in that journey later in their lives propelled mankind to use one of their most magnificent tools: their imagination, hence, creating life after death. The official birth of religion!