Originally Posted by kerry edwards

Religion based on faith is a very modern phenomena which occurs once traditional religious knowledge found in written scriptures runs up against new knowledge from astronomy, physics, biology, psychology etc. Most humans never conceived the possibility that religion might require faith since religion was a part of their knowledge systems.
Religion still doesn't require faith. It's completely possible to have a naturalistic religion rooted in an empirical epistemology.
Two groups dislike this possibility. People who think religion is for the superstitous and ignorant, and people interrested in maintaining religious ideas from the pre-modern era.