John Larkin wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
John Larkin wrote:

Without religion, groups of people will find other criteria for
forming teams and fighting. Color, language, history, favorite soccer
team, political party, whatever. Atheist Nazis fought atheist Soviets
with unparalleled enthusuasm.

Actually it's usually about LAND. None of the above.

Whether it's about land, gold, or tea, people form up teams to fight
over stuff. The things I listed are some ways the teams separate and
organize. There's no doubt that genetic similarity concentrates mutual
interest and, lacking DNA testing, language and color and religion are
useful surrogates.

In my personal experience, believers are usually nicer people than
atheists.

NOT my experience at all. SOME are very nice, some are the most evil
people on earth IMHO. The Catholic Church for example is uniquely heavily
responsible for the spread of HIV/AIDS any many other STDs.

If everyone abstained before marriage, and was monogamous after, as
the Pope recommends, there would be no AIDS. Many religious rules were
probably evolved as methods to reduce communicable diseases.

Sex/drugs/rock-and-roll spread sixty or so nasty viruses and at least
a dozen unpleasant bacteria, all of which are working on their drug
resistance.

Are you suggesting sex/drugs and rock-and-roll are responsible ?

Even the Romans had full blown group sex (orgies). Non-monogamous sex and sex
for fun within or without marriage is widespread the world over.

Funnily enough dolphins mate for fun too. As do certain apes and various other
species.

Graham