The five "R"s that probably inspired the invention of god and religion:

[Faith No More]

Let's face it, when it comes to philosophy, ancient history, and religion, there is no conclusive evidence of anything that is relatively significant on the subject.

Does that preclude you from presenting any evidence?

Does that prevent discussion?

No, but you certainly didn't give the impression you were starting a discussion. You appeared to make claims.

With that, I think the most compelling thing we have available is circumstantial evidence. We don't have a time machine to take us back to the events, but we do have the powerful tool of careful observation.

Then why not at least expound upon the observations that led you to these conclusions?

You definitely fooled me. Not just because of your user name, but because you seem somewhat pro-religion to me, which is often a weird side-effect of Apostasy

Asking an atheist to substantiate a claim made about religion is "pro-religion" all of a sudden?

I think I tried to make that reasonably evident.

Well, I think you should re-read your OP, because it wasn't even slightly evident.

All due respect, I think you are overestimating Theists here. But, for argument sake, let's say you are right. Everything I've presented here is well within the religious framework. All you have to do is merely discuss the matter with religious people and they wll happily concede most of these points.

The suicide terrorists who destroyed the twin towers during 911 were immediately celebrated by many fellow muslims for having "achieved the award of 72 virgins" and for having administered "Divine Retribution".

Does that not compell you to believe that "Reward" and "Retribution" are powerful religious motivations, and very likely two of the foundational cornerstones of it?

You see, this is exactly what I was talking about. Why not include this in the OP when you made the claim?

I feel that only helps to substantiate my position here.

How so?

(I'm not challenging you. I genuinely would like to know.)

As I said, the thread was a starting point for the discussion. During the course of this discussion, we have discussed several possibilities and supporting evidence has been provided.

Again, I have to point out that you made claims, and nowhere did you indicate it was intended to spark discussion.

And why didn't you provide the supporting evidence with the claim?

How complex do you want this be? The points I laid out are fairly well supported, but I admit, they could be significantly expounded upon.

My goal was/is to make this a progessive discussion that is relatively all-inclusive.

Perhaps in the future you should be more explicit about that instead of simply making claims with no elaboration.