How It All Happened

I am a deep thinker, no doubt about it. While laying in bed this morning, I thought about that debate between creationism and evolution supporters. I also thought about a current issue I learned about in a uni lecture recently - the dispute in Iran. (Yes, I am an odd person; I don't know if it's healthy that I think about such things when I first awaken).

The linkage of these thoughts in my head caused me to consider how it all started. I'm not necessarily referring to origins. I'm also wondering how and when various cultures were established, and how many different nations became so powerfully dominated by (generally) a particular set of religious beliefs.

The question of cultures is relatively easy to answer. Groups of people (somehow) wound up on different, disconnected land masses, which prevented interaction between these groups. Logically, each group established its unique dialect and customs. The problem with answering the rest is, the answers become so overwhelmingly complex when considering how far people have evolved in that period of time. How did employment evolve from the simple rituals of hunting and gathering?

My main question is: at what point did religion come into such prominent force? Before print technology was invented (and I go way back to sometime considerably before pen and paper), these beliefs must have been spread by word-of-mouth (my history knowledge is fairly limited, by the way, so this might seem quite ignorant, in which case I apologise). I have more thoughts and theories on this, but unfortunately the jumble in my head would be slightly incomprehensible written here, so I'll perhaps include them later when they are clearer.

Here's a thought: As dinosaurs competed for food, people compete for power and supremacy. Dinosaurs became extinct as a result of this competition and changes in environment (and resource availability). Do people face a similar fate? A problem I see with this is - dinosaurs competed for food to survive. In other words, food assisted their reproductive purpose. People kill each other for power (I know in many cases it is for survival). This motive seems more dangerous and fatal than the situation the dinosaurs failed to survive through.