Thirty thousand years ago, the first gods walked on four legs. Introduction: The First Gods Had Fur Some thirty-odd thousand years ago, in the dark belly of Chauvet Cave, someone drew lions. Not the kind you find in children’s books — these were hunters, tense with motion, stalking across limestone. No human faces. No kings. Just beasts. And that’s how religion began. Before humans built temples or wrote hymns, they painted animals. Long before we said God , we whispered bear