Augustine lived way back in the 300s (CE) in North Africa, which, at that time, was part of the Roman Empire. We're not saying that Saint Augustine's Confessionsdid all this work by itself, but it sure as heck made some headway in this whole building a religion business. Even the idea of light as good and dark as evil (ever wonder why when Obi-Wan calls it the Dark Side we immediately know it's bad news?), which is one of the oldest tropes there is, had to come from somewhere. And how about convincing people not to have sex? Yeah, good luck with that. A lot of kinks had to be worked out first-like the fact that people didn't automatically accept the idea of a God who wasn't really made of anything, but was somehow everywhere at once. “Look with pity, Lord, on these things, and deliver us who call upon Thee now deliver those too who call not on Thee yet, that they may call on Thee, and Thou mayest deliver them.The religions of the world did not just spring into being all set and ready to go. For Thou didst grant me Thy discipline, while I was learning vanities and my sin of delighting in those vanities Thou hast forgiven.” ( source) For lo, O Lord, my King and my God, for Thy service be whatever useful thing my childhood learned for Thy service, that I speak, write, read, reckon. “Hear, Lord, my prayer let not my soul faint under Thy discipline, nor let me faint in confessing unto Thee all Thy mercies, whereby Thou hast drawn me out of all my most evil ways, that Thou mightest become a delight to me above all the allurements which I once pursued that I may most entirely love Thee, and clasp Thy hand with all my affections, and Thou mayest yet rescue me from every temptation, even unto the end. “But if I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me, where, I beseech Thee, O my God, where, Lord, or when, was I Thy servant guiltless? But, lo! that period I pass by and what have I now to do with that, of which I can recall no vestige?” ( source) “For I disobeyed, not from a better choice, but from love of play, loving the pride of victory in my contests, and to have my ears tickled with lying fables, that they might itch the more the same curiosity flashing from my eyes more and more, for the shows and games of my elders.” ( source) “No doubt, then, that a free curiosity has more force in our learning these things, than a frightful enforcement.” ( source) Logos Research Subscription for Schools.

Confessions by augustine of hippo