Is it possible to maintain and respect cultural heritage and not be a racist

[Jackie]

When you have been taught that a just god rules the world, history can be troubling. Actually, it is troubling even without religion. Good people die. Really evil people sometimes succeed and there seems to be a lot of unnecessary cruelty.People who would want to do good are sometimes hurt and the people who hurt them aren't always brought to justice. I am glad that you are beginning to look at history, Drich but the lessons that you seem to have learned from history are different from what I learned.

To some extent, it is natural for humans to classify each other into groups . Once people are put into groups it is easier to view anyone outside of our own groups as one of the 'others' From there, it is easier to dehumanize the others because they are different from us. Dehumanization leads different groups to do horrible things to one another. The cure for this is to not hide away in your safe sphere but to interact with the "others'

Did you ever answer, Drich, which specific practices your dad kept your mom from following?

Dirich does what all humans do when raised with or even picking one. They find something pretty in it and get stuck on it. But a simple google search of the total number of deaths worldwide from everything per year would negate the idea of religion explaining good or bad.

Believers would have us believe that on average 50 million deaths per year are all bad people, including the deaths of children from famine or disease?

50 million deaths per year. That is half a billion in 10 years and 1 billion deaths every 20 years. That doesn't indicate to me a guiding force. It justs looks like death, just like trees die and cockroaches die.