system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
We're there any ancient atheist societies?

It seems like the farther you go back in time the more religious/spiritual groups were. Were there any ancient societies that were atheist, or just never developed spiritual beliefs?
gpt
Atheism is a modern conception, requiring the belief in 1. non-divine systems of explanation, and 2. acceptance of that non-divine system as a societal alternative from which to organize moral behavior.

1. is made harder by the fact that theory and divinity are hard to separate in the ancient world.  When we think of love, we think of it as an abstract non-divine concept (alternatives being material/biological conceptions).  They thought of love as both abstract (you're in a state of being) and personified (it is a divine entity that has caused your change to the state of being).  If you can't separate theory from religion (because they didn't even conceive of that separation), how can you have atheism?

2. is made more difficult by the fact that it tends to require a robust coercive alternative to moral sanction.  Usually, that requires a complex and effective legal system.  The reason why people turn to supernatural outlets for their grievances is because it is seen as more responsive than human ones.  Ancient law tended to only benefit the very powerful.  And even if it was seen as partially beneficial to the people at the bottom, there were simply not enough administrators running around at the ground level to supply everyones needs.  i.e. "where's a cop when you need one?"  A curse or a invocation to a deity is the cop everywhere, when you need it.

Some sources:

* Dickie, Matthew W. Magic and Magicians in the Greco-Roman World. New York: Routledge, 2003. Print.

* Horstmanshoff, Manfred  and Marten Stol, eds. Magic and Rationality In Ancient Near Eastern And Graeco-Roman Medicine. Leiden: Brill, 2004. 133–51. Print.

* Gager, John G., ed. Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Print.