Reply #132: I would take issue with that statement

[Az]

Are you suggesting that people are more human today than they were 500 years ago? 700 years ago? 1000 years ago? I would contend that we are the same humans we have been for the span of recorded history. Something has changed. But it wasn't our humanity.

Instead what has changed is our understanding of our humanity. It grows and advances. It changes over time. In the year 1212 a nation of loving Christians gathered an army made of children in the belief that God would never let harm come to innocence serving in his name. They marched this army against the infidels in the Holy Land. The bulk of the children died. The few that reached their destination were quickly captured and enslaved.

It is a false argument to presume that a people are naturally good. They are naturally good within the context of the understanding of good at the time. The Crusaders believed they were doing righteous holy work. They believed they were the good guys. We look at their actions today with our understanding and see the errors of their ways.

The sense of humanity you know today is the result of society cobbling together a better understanding of itself. It is not ingrained beyond the sense of our social connectiveness. Our basic social behaviour does not naturally extend beyond our immediate social circle. It is only our capacity to learn that has lead us to be able to grasp the notion that those far from us or different from us deserve the same rights we enjoy. This is a relatively new concept in the world. Do not presume it cannnot fall away and that we cannot slip back into darkness. It has happened before.