Quote:
Originally Posted by cmac2012
I didn't volunteer to sing the praise of those people. I tend to think that a baby snatched from such a culture and raised elsewhere will be more like the culture he is raised in. Steve Jobs was half Syrian. No doubt he is distant cousins with some of the fools engaging in random slaughter and rape in Syria. Is there some genetic difference tween Jobs and them?
Our nation is relatively civilized now but not long ago we engaged in the wholesale subjugation and use of dark skinned peoples. The women were often treated as sex slaves and breeding stock for their owners to spawn slaves related to them. Strange stuff and it can't be shrugged away. Somehow we grew out of it somewhat. Nonetheless, stats have it that one in four women in the US are raped in their lifetime so clearly some level of barbarism and depravity still exists here.
The very act of assuming superiority tends to make one stupid. It cuts down on receptivity to new information and experience.
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You and I are in complete agreement on the 'nature vs nurture' debate. I see no reason biologically to think in terms of superiority between races or nations or religions.
However, I think it is entirely reasonable to search for and try to explain moral differences among cultures. And some of these differences are absolute. Bashing women with stones for promiscuity seems a likely difference in morality in which one could reasonably argue that a culture that does not bash promiscuous women is superior to one that does. Likewise, a culture that promotes liberty is superior to one that promotes despotism. Etc.