What IS good, and how do we determine it?

[Thumpalumpacus]

Randy, you keep forgetting there are places in this world where your pet religion never traveled until very recently. If it were "the TRAJECTORY of Christianity" then would you care to explain why the Japanese never had the trouble with it that the chister world had?

Simple. Not every group in every age has struggled with the same issues.

However, one cannot help but wonder at the barbaric Japanese treatment of the Chinese and the Allied prisoners of war during WWII.

By the same token, one could wonder at why they don't suffer the high crime rate that America does, despite the fact that Christianity is much less an influence upon Japanese society.

But -- if you'd like to discuss the Japanese treatment of PoWs, there are sociocultural explanations for it which, by the way, emphasize once more the fact that morality is relative.