1. Belief in God—that Being to whom reverence and worship are properly due—is common to almost all people of every era.
2. Either the vast majority of people have been wrong about this most profound element of their lives or they have not.
3. It is most plausible to believe that they have not.
4. Therefore it is most plausible to believe that God exists.

This is a terrible argument. All one has to do is substitute "God" for "a flat Earth" and you can immediately see how lame it is. Reality is what it is regardless of what people believe about it. The truth isn't democratic, it isn't decided upon by a majority.

(Now I wonder if this comment will be deleted as well, like some of my others have).

You've listed a historian, theologian and a anthropologist and conclude that there is a consensus?

Again, you are talking about agricultural societies. The issue here is about pre-agricultural societies.

Who did you read? Check out Justin Scheiber, and/or ask him to do a guest post if you are truly serious about engaging with the best arguments for positive atheism.

I admit my language in my last comments was not as precise as it could have been and I didn't take the time to qualify my remarks. I was trying to give you a sampling of what I understand are prominent 20th century scholars of comparative religion (historians, anthropologists, theologians, etc.). Otto and Schmidt were early 20th century. Mircea Eliade was middle 20th century and Ninian Smart was last half of 20th century...he was president of the American Academy of Religion until his death in 2001. Aloysius Ligura is a contemporary expert on native African religion. So among these prominent scholars of the 20th century there appears to be a consensus that early civilizations had a monotheistic tendency. BTW, I'm using that word monotheism loosely to include what some would call monism or henotheism. Aloysius Ligura is an interesting read. He has researched the oral tradition of native African religions and found that they all have a monotheistic type of supreme being that they believe in. Where as Zoroastrianism, Hinduism and Judaism originated 3000 - 5000 years ago, the roots of China's belief in the supreme being Shang Di and native African religion go back much further. We know thats true, for example in China because the belief in Shang Di preceded taoism, buddhism, and confucianism. As Aloysium Ligura points out, the native African religion that has survived until present has always been transmitted through an oral tradition. The latter as well as the fact that African has about 6000 different groups of people but all share the same common belief in a supreme being point to this belief being ancient, i.e. the original religion of ancient Africa

Thanks. I had forgotten about that. I agree the rituals most likely came first and the thought about it later.

I think I agree. Most human behaviors seem to be somewhat in continuity with some animal behavior or other, but the additional capacity for symbolic thought changes everything. This is why, even though I would personally consider the elephant behavior to be an expression of worship, I think human worship constitutes the "fullness of praise". When an animal can both worship and additionally develop a mental model for what the worship means, and when that animal then worships in a way that integrates that symbolic thinking, I would say that takes it to another level entirely.

Since we are talking about mourning and poetry, let me take the opportunity to share out a poem that many may be familiar with, in honor of Sept 11: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/247934

Or, to put it more succinctly, the theists' conviction that atheists don't know what they are talking about and are just so wrong their errors defy explanation should carry no more weight in these debates than the atheists' conviction that theists have no possible reason to believe in a God whose existence is no more demonstrable than the existence of unicorns or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

My unshakeable conviction that you are wrong and I am right is no more proof of anything than your unshakable conviction that I am wrong and you are right.