In The Beginning

The Paleolithic Origins of Religious Consciousness

This inquiry is intended to explore the earliest manifestations of religious consciousness among our Paleolithic ancestors. It is not designed to be a defense of Darwinian evolutionary science but rather embraces the science as a prerequisite to the inquiry. Furthermore, no effort will be made to be “convincing” with respect to humankind’s Paleolithic origins but rather takes as a scientific given our evolution from pre-human to human form. Therefore, what we are in pursuit of here in this investigation is both a definition of “religious consciousness” which is compatible with evolutionary science and the identification and analysis of the demonstrative evidence among early humankind of a religious sensibility. Naturally, the burden is upon the definition of “religious” consciousness and the evidence from Paleolithic times of such sensibilities. This is our agenda.