How do you suppose to know that? For somebody propped up by a tripod of logical crutches, I found a supposed truth like that surprising.
I would guess that there have always been people who use belief as a form of manipulation, since the dawn of humanity. As long as there has been the concept of spirituality, likely has there also been those who use it as a tool for gain/control.
It doesn't take much to figure this out. In socieities where animism prevails, there is usually no mechanism for those in control to profit from it's existance. There may be cases where a Shaman or other religious leader (though in many cases in the more primities animist societies there is no such position)
Also, in Native American societies today (The non-Christian group I have most experience with) there is very little in the way of indoctrination (and indeed, Christianity is becoming more and more prevalent) and in my experience, nothing in the way of profit motive. I'm not even aware of any "passing of the plate." I have occasionally heard of Shaman charging for healings, but I have never actually seen it.
Also, in Wiccan groups (which I also have some familiarity with), most practioners follow what they call "the solo path" or some variation thereof. In families where the parents are Wiccans, there may be some indoctrination of their children, but the majority in their ranks came to Wicca through their own 'searching' and decisions. For the vast majority, there exists no power structure that feeds on creating new members and keeping old members. Indeed, there is no formal (and barely even an informal) membership.
This is somewhat weakened by the fact that publishers like Llewellyn feed off of Wicca and Occult-related book sales. I don't think this changes the base of it though:
Human beings are intrinsically wired to believe in a diety or dieties. With all indications that the earliest religions were based in animism, and given the power structure, it doesn't seem like much of a stretch to suggest that the first animists were not based in profit or power. The structure of animism doesn't function in a way that makes this very easy.
I would guess that there have always been people who use belief as a form of manipulation, since the dawn of humanity. As long as there has been the concept of spirituality, likely has there also been those who use it as a tool for gain/control.
That doesn't seem entirely likely. As I've noted above, animism's core 'tenets'- tenuous tenets, they may be- don't such manipulations easy, though.
Sure there were those who tried to do so, but spirituality certainly existed before the first person attempted to profit from it.
For somebody propped up by a tripod of logical crutches, I found a supposed truth like that surprising
A 'truth' as in capital-T Truth? Not quite, because obviously there's no way to know this for certain, but based upon what we know of early animist cultures and current animist cultures and other related religions, it's not much of a leap to make this statement
Next time put some more thought into what you want to post before you post it, then re-read it and decide if it's really worth saying. Hopefully you can maybe stay at least close to the topic next time.