Do civs start as athiest or "pagan?"

[Atrebates]

@Leprechaune
I seem to have snipped the end off my arguement.
Point is a pagan religion (generally) had the same core pantheon, it's identifiable as a single religion. It is a feature of that religion that an individual town may worship its own river goddess or whatever, but it still has the same core beliefs- deny Dagda and you are in trouble and as such it can be THE religion of a civ.
But perhaps Pagan is in this sense too Advanced to be the base religion

 

[Afgnwrlrd]

Why? It doesn't require any technology. Vertually every isolated culture has a similar religion of representing each and every thing with its own spirit.

 

[Lockesdonkey]

The base "primitive" religion should be animism, because it has a (relatively) simple belief system, and was the earliest religion (that we know of from archaelogical and anthropological evidence)

Hinduism adequately represents the "pagan" complex polytheism of antiquity, as well as a possible path had they not (in most cases) been supplanted by more organized, monotheistic faiths.

Atheism, however, requires a scientific tradition with reason as a base. Until you have a complex body of philosophy that is not religiously informed, you cannot develop a coherent system that explains most things without turning to the supernatural. However, once that occurs, anything goes. ("If horses had the minds of men, they would make gods in their image." --Xenophanes)

 

[Atrebates]

I realised in my post that the incorporation aspect of 'Paganism' as I described it makes a good predatory religion to spread and dominate with, however religions are not allowed boosts like this (ie easier to spread) so its irrelevant.
However paganism is more that basic in the the sense of giving deities distinct personalities, that is relevant to civ and (IMO) makes it an advanced religion