i invite everyones views on this...

i was talking to my father yesterday, who is an ordained minister (christian). i confessed to him that i have no religion. at first he was skeptical, but he did not look down on me. we talked for 3 hours about our views on religion... i asked him a few questions and he told me his answers and i contributed to them from my side of view. although i have no religion, he and i both know that our outlook about a higher power is the same...

i asked him " if you were born in a different place and a different time, and you just knew that there was something more to life than what you are able to see, and you started putting your faith in that source, would you say that that source would be god?" he said that yes whether it was a different religion that he was in at that place and whether he worshipped a statue ar an animal, whatever the case, that source would be god even if it was under another name, because he would know that there was a higher existance whatever it was called. he says that who he believes in was influenced by his surroundings, such as family, and churches, people and experiences. he also says that if none of these things were around him, he doesnt think that he would feel as strong as he does about his religion and if you would like to say "this particular god", and jesus.

i asked him the same question above, but without there being any religions around...
he says that, that source that he knew was of higher existance would be god, even if he called it some thing else... (NO OFFENSE ANYONE) he says that you can see that people of all cultures knew that there was something there, like cultures who first grew up without any religion, but knew that there was something there, and turned to worshipping animals, rocks, statues, gods, wind gods, water gods, anything....etc.


****so this is my personal opinion... would you say that it is safe to say that at apoint earlier in life before there were religions at all, people in groups knew that there was something higher up than them... in this group they could have used anything to symbolize this source?... is it safe to say that as these groups of people advanced, that symbol of earlier choice had passed through generations?... is it safe to say that a religion couldnt have just come from nothing and always was? (metaphorically speaking, they say you have to have went to college to be considered educated and to be looked at for a good job, when the first person or people who thought of or made college, didnt have a degree and never went to college before they made it)...
is it safe to say that it is possible that as these groups had their religion already formed and name etc, that by the time that contact was made amongst groups, that their ideal of this source clashed, because each person was brought up another way than the other, and wouldnt abandoned it because they all knew what they were talking about, they knew that this source was there and alive and real. there religion was passed down from generation to generation, but they all knew that this source was real. these groups may not have had the same religion as the other... but that same higher power that they knew existed was the same and didnt know it because they had there own religions and different ways of going about this presence and ways to worship this power....

is it safe to say that this higher power did get close to these religions on a deeper level, such as jesus being born, buddha, animal, planets.. is it possible that this higher source showed itself  accordingly?
 
i just want to know if it is safe to say that this is possibly going on today?