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Originally Posted by Phaseolus  What you say is interesting though some what flawed in my opinion. You believe that the majority of people at some point in their lives question their beliefs, but your very statement implies that that this is a temporary phase... |
I don't disagree. In fact, I only meant this to show that it is temporarily possible.
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Originally Posted by Phaseolus ...The very fact that an overwhelming majority of the world has always subscribed/had to a/a religion/belief system through out mankind's history, through the past 200,000 years of cultural and societal evolution is testament to fact that it can't. |
Here I do disagree. Just because the overwhelming majority have subscribed to a belief in a higher power through out mankind's history does not necessitate that condition. Consider that the majority also subscribed to many beliefs that are not widely held today i.e. crazy people are possessed by spirits, the world is flat, droughts are caused by gods etc...
As for examples of secular cultures here is a link to a list I found on the internet:
http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_atheist.html In addition to this list I am also under the impression that France during the revolution became for a time predominately atheist. To my knowledge the French coined the term atheism at this time. Also, I recall hearing there was a time in ancient Greece when people stopped believing their gods were real and took the stories as works of the poets. Admittedly, I would have to do a bit of searching to try and substantiate this claim. Maybe someone else has the information handy and can comment on it. If not and you are interested I will see what I can dig up on it. I'll stop here for now as it seems sufficient to establish the possibility.