converting back unto theism - yes it's true.

[Xyster]

As an atheist I'm certainly not trying to act as an apologist for religiosity - but don't you think if these people didn't fight over religion, they would have probably found something else to fight over?

NO At least not the ferosity that religion drives one too. tribe vs tribe would be political power over a region for resources... Religion will set neighbor against neighbor to the point of Genocide

I'd say religion is a symptom of a characteristic of human nature we haven't come to fully understand yet. I think maybe our survival instinct can work against us under certain conditions. For instance, early man formed tribes, because it was beneficial to hunt and work in groups. It's a survival mechanism. However, dualistic thinking also seems to be an inherited trait. I'm not a evolutionary or socio-biologist (so I'm not sure how this trait originated - perhaps because of some sort of instinctual paranoia developed through natural selection as a survival mechanism ... who knows), but it seems to be a predominant feature of human psychology. Sometimes our survival instinct combines with our predisposition towards dualism to produce a bad result.

We're pattern seeking creatures who like explanations for things. Obviously early man must have been overwhelmed by natural phenomena, and their general lack of understanding of the natural world probably resulted in all sorts of bizarre superstitions that ultimately led to the development of more complex religious systems (just to mention one of what must have been numerous factors that contributed to the development of modern religion). However, if these conditions didn't exist, groups would have cooperated for different cultural reasons, and there's no evidence to suggest we would be any less dualistic as a result (so we can fairly assume fighting between different groups of people would still happen).

However, religion presents a particularly difficult problem (which I fully acknowledge). Dealing with irrational religious faith is much different than dealing with a secularized form of tribalism (like say linguistic or racial differences). I guess my point in all this dribble is, as rational thinkers, we shouldn't allow ourselves to become overly influenced by emotive arguments. The religious usually sincerely believe what they purport to believe (with some obvious exceptions); and religious mythology is a product of our intellectual development as a species (I guess I'm trying to say we should look at it forensically rather than politically ... I don't know). I'm shutting up now ... LOL?

But you see there is proof that with out religion you can live in peace... There are still a few tribes cut off from civilization that have NO religion what so ever are completely peacfull they get along with the other couple tribes in their area.