Reply #20: My objections are that you are laying too much at the feet

[muriel_volestrangler]

of Abrahamic religions, and ignoring the violence of other religions, and your characterisation of history is not very good. The Old Testament has the Jewish people doing a lot of killing, but most of it is not supported by any archaeological evidence - the evidence is that Jews were a pastoral people who took over the settled towns (ie for economic gain), and were never a conquering state because of their religion. It's notable they didn't try to convert people to their religion - they just took land and cities they wanted.

The Persian, Greek and Roman Empires were violent and expansionist before they came into contact with the Jews. The Egyptians, and Mesopotamians, were fighting large wars thousands of years earlier. So were the Chinese. A lot of early Hindu myths involve war. The Incas conquered many of their neighbours. Genghis Khan and Attila are bywords for conquest and war, and they didn't have a belief in Yahweh. Ask the Christians whom the Vikings attacked which was the more murderous culture. I'm not saying that Christian and Muslim cultures aren't violent - they are - but they are by no means alone.

While I'd agree that the Greeks are responsible for our notion of individual dignity (I'd actually say that most westerners would say that too), I think that to say they 'merely formalized the wisdom' from older tribes is a leap in the dark. What's your evidence for that? I've never heard that Greek philosophers said their ideas came from an earlier time.