"Great Chain of Being" - the cosmos has produced a continuous chain of entities in the universe from complex to simple, from spirits through humans, animals, plants, and the elements. This concept was discussed by Plato (427-348 B.C.), but existed before Plato.

The "atomistic school", worked out by Leucippus and Deomocritus in the fifth century B.C., said that the universe is eternal, and its order arose out of a blind interplay of atoms.

The Chinese cosmogony describes the world as resulting from impersonal forces, through a "ladder of nature" from the simplest plants up through man.

All the ancient cosmogonical myths (the stories of how the universe got here) start with matter already existing in some form, upon which the forces of nature (or gods who personify them) bring about a cosmos out of chaos.

Evolutionary ideas can be traced all the way back to the time of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel (Gen. 10:8-10, 11:1-9). Henry Morris speculates that a temple dedicated to the Zodiac (representing Satan and his evil spirits) was at the top of the tower.

In short, the idea that our universe arose through natural means, without the need for God, has always been with us.