Why some humans are so evil: double standards and irreligion

[FatAndFaithless]

But those old bad times you reference..those only changed because people weren't bound by their circumstance.  Obviously people saw the things wrong in their current time, current society, so they changed them.  The world keeps getting better and better overall (there's always going to be dips, of course), but people always think it's getting worse and worse.

We aren't just bound by a chance of being born in this time and place.  People have agency and ability to break from whatever the norm is.  And in general, most people most of the time use that agency to improve things.

But what kept us from being bound by our circumstances?  Stuff.  The reason we're so progressive now, is we all have bunch of stuff.  House, food, security, etc...  And more importantly, there's enough stuff for us to have a bunch of it, and all of our neighbors to have a bunch of it.  The circumstances are we've evolved to not need to own slaves.  Or steal the neighbors sheep.  Or kill the rival tribe.  We want to sit on our couches and watch Netflix.  Our motivations change with our standard of living.  

If the North had still needed slavery, there wouldn't have been a civil war.  It wasn't a crisis of conscience, it was just that they could get what they wanted without slavery, so they stopped with the slavery.  And I'd guess it was also some power play by the North as it relates to their relationship with the South as well.  I don't think people get better.  There is just less incentive to be 'evil.'

Or...the increase in quality of life ("stuff") for most people is a result of people trying to make the world better, not the driver. Or both. Do you really think people are neanderthal morally-vacuous animals that would be out raping and killing if we didn't have our current society in place? That's...a really dark and frankly unsupported view. Shit was bad in the past. It's going to be just by definition, because as years go on, things get better and better for more and more people.

I guess I just have more faith in humanity than you.  I'm proud to be a member of the human race.  We're pretty much good folks.