Actual historical facts please. Like I know primitive people had certain beliefs and superstitions, but how did this turn into gods, etc. I'd like to understand where people changed to worshipping something, why?
I don't know anything for sure, because it was likely before written history, but it probably started when people looked up at the stars and wondered what was out there, and where they came from, why they were here, etc. It must've seemed to them that anything as complex as them and their earth must have been created.
religions began far back in the mists of prehistory, as evidenced by the caves at Lascaux, so there are no facts for you. However, here is what William Blake, who lived two and a half centuries ago, thought:
The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged & numerous senses could percieve.
And particularly they studied the genius of each city & country, placing it under its mental deity;
Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of & enslav'd the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects: thus began Priesthood;
Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales.
And at length they pronounc'd that the Gods had order'd such things.
Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast.
No such thing as "primitive people" we were intelligent from Adam and God is the origin of all. herders lived in caves simple because they were there, a matter of convenience.
There are no "historical" facts. Someone thought it up. Religion has evolved, and it stems from human ignorance. We don't know - so we make up an explanation. It's the way our minds work. We look for patterns and we'd prefer a conspiracy theory to no theory at all. Religion just happened to be our "first guess" so it sticks.
It probably started as sun worship. It brought light, warmth, necessary for life . . . etc. Then maybe evolved into nature worship. Then ancestor worship. And then people probably started claiming ancestors were speaking through them, or they had dreams that seemed like "visions", or something like a modern day "psychic" that made people aggrandize them into a deity-like person.
Thus, "human Gods" were created. And then it just progressed into monotheism as we know it today.
*shrugs*
All of this is just my guess, btw. As I said, there aren't "facts" really.