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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sil vis pacem para bellum" data-source="post: 2843775" data-attributes="member: 40146">Couple of things:First, the advent of the idea of an all powerful God who judges the strong and weak is fundamental in transforming a culture from one built on the law of the jungle where the strong completely rule the weak with no ramifications so long as they don't attack a bigger brute, to one with the notion that there are tangible moral restraints that trump power, if not in this life then the next.  I am not just talking about people being "good" to get into heaven.  That's a mentality that comes from soft living and an expectation that you'll die safely in your bed.  I am talking about people in groups having moral expectations of their leaders and what sorts of behaviors are tolerable/acceptable even though they have no ability on their own to compel their rulers' morality.  To suggest that we don't need "religion" to have morality, to me, starts with a basic premise that some sort of western civilization or reasonable facsimile is the default human condition.  History suggests it is not.  I think it sounds good in theory but in practice, it leads directly to savagery.Second, speaking on my own journey, I left the Christian religion as a young woman because I was offended by both its historical treatment of women and what I viewed as its fanciful fairytale theology.  In those days, I lumped most the patriarchal religions in the same category and didn't bother to closely examine differences in how women were treated.  In the decades that have followed, I have come to believe that I missed the point, which is, absent religion or a morality based on religion (such as what is found in western civilization), as a woman, I am viewed primarily as breeding stock and not particularly useful once that stage of life is passed.  The introduction of Islam to this country as well as the radical elements that have arisen in the Middle East bring home to me, as a woman, that not all religions are created equal.  As a woman, I fare far better with the protections provided by Christianity than I lose in its absence.  In the jungle, there is primarily prey and predator and we women are usually prey.  Pretending that people in power will treat those with less power in a moral manner, in the absence of the notion that they will pay a high price if they don't, strikes me as a horrifying road for a people to take.  Choosing what religion, IMO, also makes a difference.  This is a golden age for women under Christianity.  From my view as a women accustomed to western civilization freedoms, it is hell on earth under Islam.</blockquote>

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