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Ms. Phelps-Roper's change of heart about Christmas, at the cost of her family's association is instructive. As highly evolved primates, at least physically and mentally, it's hard to abandon tribal loyalties. Some highly evolved tribal operating systems make it fatal to attempt, such as fundamentalist Islam demands apostates be execut…
Ms. Phelps-Roper's change of heart about Christmas, at the cost of her family's association is instructive. As highly evolved primates, at least physically and mentally, it's hard to abandon tribal loyalties. Some highly evolved tribal operating systems make it fatal to attempt, such as fundamentalist Islam demands apostates be executed.
Which makes Christianity rather interesting, studying its remarkable spread throughout Europe during the fourth century CE. For example, I'm reminded of Constantine's mother commissioning the survey of Christian sacred sites in the Holy Land, such as Nazareth, Jerusalem, and the Galillee sites such as K'far Nahum (Capernaum). The Jewish Sages credit Christianity with civilizing the nations, being it generally keeps the Laws of Noah (with the worship of the Messiah being an arguable exception). It was Christianity that defeated the commercial slave trade in England in the 18th century and informed the abolition of slavery in the United States not long afterwards (after a civil war).
Sadly, Christianity and the great Enlightenment it fostered -- and fought sometimes, is disappearing. It will be a fringe population by the end of this century. It's all but disappeared in Europe, given the landscape of empty churches. We're facing a secular, anti-scientific, anti-enlightenment future that is, sadly, sinking our societies into moral and political incompetence.