rm>> I cannot speak for ALL atheists, but I can say that I have grown
rm>> out of the need for a deity concept.
FR> As primates I think that most humans still need an Alpha Male.
FR> How so much better when they construct an invisible Alpha which
FR> can't be reached and thus can't be challanged and dethroned.
rm> Likely done out of necessity.  How long do you think it
rm> could have lasted without the impossibility of disproof?
About as long as it would take for a skeptic to step forward and cut the
Alpha Male's balls off.  (Metaphorically speaking, of course.)
FR> With this unreachable, invisible Alpha Male mounted at the top,
rm> Sounds rather racy. ;)
  Naturally we're disgusted.  I was observing bonobo chips
ritually mount and "position" their Alpha and couldn't help but notice
how humans who follow cult leaders or rock stars exhibit the same need
to touch their idols.
FR> the greedy and the control freaks and manipulate
FR> the ignorant, the weak, and the gullible.
rm> Or perhaps to also keep many of the immoral in line with what society
rm> deems is fit behavior for a citizen.  What reason would they have had
rm> to be moral at all, after all it usually got one poverty, mistreatment,
rm> death, etc with no reward in sight.  Religion (or theism, if you like)
rm> provided that reward,... and still does for many.
If it were only just the reward, religion wouldn't be so evil.  The
Jewish holy books didn't contain any ideology of punishment and yet when
the Jewish holy book was mated with the new Christian gods, the resulting
synthesis contained one.
It is the idea of "sin" which has been responsible for much of the tyranny
of religion, not the idea of reward.
rm> Imagine how fast early civilization would have crumbled if everyone
rm> were viewed equal?  I am thinking of the Egyptian gods and rulers (who
rm> were thought of as gods themselves embodied in human form).
At least they, like the Romans, allowed their citizens to believe in a
large number of gods and goddesses.
It used to be that when one passed through the domain of a king or ruler,
one would bay ritual or symbolic homage to the gods and goddesses of that
nation or city.  That was tolerant and polite.
Along came monotheism which demanded that all the other gods and goddesses
were "false" and such polite behavior was, in fact, an affront to the one
god.  I think that religion became evil when monotheism caught on.
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