Pardon, I do agree there is still an unresolved desire for violence in even our own culture that we are no closer to understanding. What I found distasteful wa

Pardon, I do agree there is still an unresolved desire for violence in even our own culture that we are no closer to understanding. What I found distasteful was pinning that on religion. I think there are ancient forms of knowledge -- often passed on by a story which becomes abstract after many generations -- passed on as culture, with clear evidence that parents pass on their behaviors, attitudes and values. Cultures I think blend discretely so that there are many subcultural currents. I would say all of these currents are in the same broad kind, but that their being alike in type does not imply one following the other. Even as a dire skeptic one must admit the possibility of at least a subset of religious teachings to hold some truth; perhaps passed on merely as culture, our most ancient (yet perhaps still most powerful) form of knowledge; or perhaps self-perpetuating due to its very own divine truth. I'm not a trained historian so I'd love further opinion, but the Romans did not seem to very much actually believe in their pantheon, and yet were a very mighty and violent culture indeed.