(February 12, 2016 at 8:16 am)robvalue Wrote: Sure, but treating gays less well just because they are gay, and similar prejudiced behaviour, is more like tribalism. But then I shouldn't be surprised by that, most religions are extremely divisive. The bible fucks around for a while before making that explicit, but by god, the Quran doesn't. Right from the start we're being told what shit fuckers we are, and that it's not even our fault, but that we deserve to be treated badly anyway.
I am with you, there is no excuse now for their crap. Don't confuse explanation for providing an excuse. Knowing why people make bad claims and why they cling to them, helps us manage civility to a greater degree.
Tribalism is evolutionary, other primates form groups too. I only agree that the more we know about scientific reality the less of an excuse their old claims can be used.
Yes it is sick that people value these bad claims. But evolution unfortunately allows for bad claims to grow to become groups and that is part of our species survival. Unfortunately bad claims and cruelty and brute force do work to get an individual or group to the point of reproduction. The good thing is we are scientifically increasingly aware that we can manage our flawed and messy reality through more understanding of our messy reality.
Back then even in polytheism, the mortality rate was much higher, and humans depended on the tribal leaders to a much greater degree. Science, especially over the last 150 years has given us the ability to step out of that gap filling and see it for what it really is.