Even the neanderthals had some concept of spirits and a sort of religion.

If ever they were ill they went to the Medicine Man, who thought that they had a bad spirit in them, and so cut a hole in their head to let the spirit out (trephining or trepanning. Either or depending on personal preference). He was also thought of as the way to contact the spirit world.

Proof of all this comes from not only the study of cave paintings and early human skeletons, but also the study of the Aborighines in Australia - they're thought to be extremely similar to the early "cavemen" in their practices.

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I completely agree with all you say about religion, mj. The majority of the worlds problems have been, and still are, caused by it.

There's also a great quote, can't remember who said it, though, about Man and God:

"And the sixth day God created Man. On the seventh day Man returned the favour."

Very well written, by the way. Very good 'article', I suppose you'd call it.

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EDIT: I was thinking this as I was reading your post.

I don't know about America, but it's definitely true for [at least] my year at school, maybe even my age group across the country - very few people are religious. Many think the idea of a God is absurd, and quite a few will argue to the death about it.

It may just be that England and Britain as a whole is less religious and more of a multi-culture society, or it may be that as you get older you start to question everything more. It's true to say that a lot of schools, unless they're religious schools, won't 'force' pupils to be religious. They still teach RE and so on, but it's not drummed into us as it may be over the pond.