When did atheism start?

Atheism has existed in India for many centuries. In fact despite appearances of many gods and goddesses, certain denominations of Hinduism are atheistic in that they don't believe in a creator God. Atheism is a valid path to spirituality in Hinduism though it is regarded as a difficult one and so is rarely followed by those who describe themselves as Hindu.

A huge majority of ancient Sanskrit literature is atheistic.

Jainism itself is an organized philosophy from ancient India that does not believe in a creator God and is over 2500 years old.

Atheism is only a lack of a belief in gods. It isn't believing that "there never was a creator due to lack of science" nor is it the position that "religion is a dictatorship". It's JUST a lack of a belief in the existence of gods, and has therefore been around since someone first asserted that a god or gods existed.

Modern atheism? My guess and I could be wrong, probably started back in the late 1960's 70's sexual revolution, although not so prominent back then but it was a time of rebellion for the world.

Atheism was around before someone gave an excuse and credit to some magical sky wizard who gets jealous over where we stick our mansticks. Because they obviously didn't believe just for the simple fact they had never considered a fairytale involving impossible beings to this ignorant magnitude.

When did atheism start? No doubt when the first cave man tried to claim those lights in the sky at night were magical beings and their camp fires. The atheist in the group was the one who said that was bullsh!t.

in 1859 Charles Darwin brought Atheism out of the closet when he invented evolutionism

Ug the caveman said to Og: Shiny sky face make crops grow if we pray hard. Og said,no,shiny sky face make crops grow whether we pray or not. Ug sacrificed Og to shiny sky face. Thus the dichotomy of theism and atheism was born.

There were such people. For example Jean Meslier (1664 - 1729)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Meslier

More information here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_atheism

Jean Meslier, atheist in 1708 (and before and after):

There have been atheists since time out of mind, because of the lack of evidence of any gods. You don't need science, all you need is to be able to think

Atheism started when logic got removed from school curricula.