What most scholars agree upon is that the religious impulse reaches deep into our Paleolithic past. But just how deep remains a matter of fierce debate. The Paleolithic era is formally divided into three periods: the Lower Paleolithic Period, between 2.5 million and 200,000 years ago, when Homo sapiens first appeared on the scene; the Middle Paleolithic Period, between 200,000 and 40,000 years ago, when the first examples of cave paintings can be found; and the Upper Paleolithic Period, between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, when we start to see the blossoming of full-fledged religious
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