Expert: Austin Cline - 8/26/2005

Question
Hello,
I have a rather  difficult question to ask you. I happen to be an atheist(though the polar opposite of a secular Humanist!) - anyway, on a topic about religion on a particular forum, someone stated that religion is an essential, inalienable  part of all human life and that human beings  would be all the poorer without it.
Now, while I am fully aware that there is sufficient data out there to disprove the existence of a God, I don't think religion is all that bad as it's merely a product of the human imagination designed to explain the "Unknown"  to the mindless masses via symbols; and imagination is itself neither good nor evil, it's merely a tool.
However, I like playing Devil's Advocate and would be interested to know if there have ever been any primitive tribes in the past(and present?) with no belief in any God whatsoever. I suppose that animism(belief in Nature Spirits counts as a religion).
I would also be grateful for any links to webpages(with annotated statistics) on the cruelties committed by all the various religions throughout history (not just ones about Christian/Judaeic/Islamic religions, but also about  less obvious ones such as Buddhism/Zoroastrianism etc.).
Thanks so much
Geoff Purcell

Answer
"However, I like playing Devil's Advocate and would be interested to know if there have ever been any primitive tribes in the past(and present?) with no belief in any God whatsoever."

This might help:

http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/ath/blathp_primitive.htm

Sorry, but I'm not aware of any web pages that detail all the atrocities committed in the name of religion.