Okay... so you are doing exactly what I said you would do.
This argument began with me saying, the oldest bones we've ever unearthed show signs of human spirituality. This is the oldest settlement we've ever found and there is human spirituality. Previously, the oldest civilizations we'd found were in Africa and we also found signs of ritual ceremony. Of course we know later civilizations in Egypt were certainly spiritual.
Now you ask how do we know it wasn't like stone tools. something we "picked up"? Well. we don't know this because we only have what we've unearthed. I suspect, before man became civilized, there probably wasn't spirituality. However, there are many prehistoric cave paintings and such to suggest that even the earliest Cro-Magnon cave men had some spiritual beliefs. I mean, if you subscribe to the whole "common ancestor" thing, I doubt the first monkey-human to pop out just said.. hmm.. got this dang urge to be spiritual for some reason! I wasn't there, we don't have evidence, so I don't know.
My only claim has been that spirituality has been inherent to mankind for as long as humans have been civilized and that's what the evidence shows. I can't tell you when it started which is the problem I have with those who claim it started when man invented it to [whatever]. That's an opinion and not a supported fact. We can say that about RELIGION but not spirituality. We know about when organized religious beliefs began, we can trace the origins. If human spirituality were invented, like stone tools and religion, we should find evidence of when it was invented and we don't. It has existed as long as man has been civilized. How it started, we don't know. It remains a fundamental characteristic and our most defining attribute as a species.
Back to the Lake Mungo findings... It's not just that we find evidence of cremation burial, it's the red ocher they used which is the key. This is an aesthetic material which was not available locally. They didn't just go out and bust open a rock and think... hmm, that's pretty, let me decorate this dead body with it. The red ocher had to be brought there from hundreds of miles away. That tells me it was an important thing and a special occasion when it was used. Truly, a ritualistic ceremony. So what practical or pragmatic reason would humans have to perform ritual ceremonies for the dead? It can only be spirituality.
So Boss, how do you think it all started? My opinion is, at some point, spiritual nature revealed itself to man and man became spiritually connected. Perhaps this is what enabled us to overcome fear of fire or create the first tools? I believe it stuck for the same reason it sticks around today... humans need to believe in something greater than self. It's our driving force... where we derive inspiration. Without it, we'd still be living in the trees picking our asses. That's my opinion.
