@edgarblythe,
Quote:The penalty for atheism in Saudi Arabia: three to twenty years in prison.
Then it is obviously of some importance to them. Perhaps atheism represents a threat to the structure of inheritance which maintains the ruling class and with which we are on pretty good terms.
And it can't be atheists
per se. It must be those who publicly declare it.
Many an atheist has gone through the pious devotions for reasons any sensible atheist will understand. There is no reason not to if there is advantage to it.
Roman emperors did it when visiting regions where other gods were worshipped than their own. Some very strange ones quite often. They also abolished some chthonic ceremonies here in England. As they did elsewhere.
Perhaps they would still be taking place had the Holy Roman Empire never existed. That would be nice wouldn't it ed?
It is not given to many people, especially stone-age and bronze-age people, to think that there is anything much wrong with what was going on or whatever wrongs they did feel they simply accepted.
The alternative being nailed to a cross.
So why would the conditions ever have changed. The Australian aborigines are said to have not changed their ways in 14,000 years. And there must be others.
Anybody who thinks they know more than a drop of gnat's piss about this subject is off their head. Doing a Vienna waltz with their ego.
