ultrachicken said:
I think people measure how great their religion is based on whether or not they think it's actually correct.
It's not only the "nastiest" that survive. Plenty of civilians haven't owned slaves, or committed mass genocide, etc. It's just the ones that do get the most attention.
Please, stop with the "humans are such jerks!" threads.
Imagine you're a farmer in 16th century France, you've got just enough food stored away so that you and your family might eat for the winter; along comes a family of refugees, they beg you for food and shelter, do you a) help them and put your own family at risk of starving during winter or b) turn them away knowing full well they'll likely starve?
Using today's morality turning them away is a wrong act, but the very fact we were born means that our ancestors made these sort of choices and chose themselves.
Humans
are jerks, it's hard-wired into us, doesn't mean we shouldn't try and over-come it, but it's not something we should be ignorant about either.