Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

" I've seen plenty evidence of Life... creative and groovy RA, shell middens, stone tools, later Bronze implements, Neolithic Cairns, BA Cairns... but not any evidence of religious worship."

Having a 'belief' stands at the core of the human psyche - yes I know you modern sceptics would argue otherwise - but I am with HD that life through survival and work is the important factor in most human societies. Alignments of stones could be as much to do with seasonal and practical stuff.
Religion is a teaching mechanism, a way of keeping people in control, if there is any parallel than look at the decoration of churches over the centuries compared to the stones, and interpret the stories they are telling, if you can of course.

"Alignments of stones could be as much to do with seasonal and practical stuff.

Carnac and other stone rows i.e. those on Dartmoor may or may not have been used seasonally , but practical ? Do tell .

Would you extend that to stone circles , cursus , henges , passage graves ,long barrows etc ?

"Do you mean 'person who doesn't automatically believe all sorts of bullshit promoted by nearly always ill-informed internet dickheads?', if so that fits a bit better."

Yeah, that probably describes me too, but I'd also stress "always open for evidence". That's evidence, not non-evidence.

I may be sticking my head in the oven here but to deny the probability that many (not necessarily all) of the varied monuments had some religious/ritual/spiritual function or purpose would seem to me to be wilfully obtuse regardless of whether or not one is religious oneself or completely atheistic. I think I'm right in saying that the earliest monuments were associated with death/burial (I use that term loosely) and then I think of Christopher Hitchens' point that humankind will only forego religion entirely when it sheds its fear of death; put the two together and you can see how a reverence of dying and the dead, with the associated construction of impressive monuments, leads into a belief-system which requires similar structures to be built to give it substance/authority, what you will. I know archaeologists always get defensive about ascribing 'ritual' as a function for a monument but it seems a more-than-reasonable conjecture; whether in the case of the big ones their builders/guardians were wholly benign or fanatical/authoritarian is something we'll just never know. Known history suggests the bigger, the more dogmatic.

With no apologies for bringing the Romans in, have you been following the "diversity in Roman Britain" kerfuffle?

A great example of genuine expertise v ill-informed bullshit. With sexism.

Mary Beard is fucking great though: https://www.the-tls.co.uk/roman-britain-black-white/