[yankeedame]

...Judeo-Christian derived ethics and morality. Even language itself is bathed in religious message. Likewise, contemporary stories are largely inspired by this history. The cultural fruit of Judeo-Christian morality permeates all of society, exposing theist and atheist alike to biblical morality from cradle to grave...

If I may add, the Judeo-Christian theology introduced to the world, and to world history, two previously unknown, unimagined, and unimaginable concepts:

• The right of private property -- esp. the most valuable of them all: the right of a man to do with his body what he wishes, [a.k.a. personal freedom] Hence the Founding Fathers statement re: "life, liberty..."
• The worth of a man in the eyes of God. What does that mean? It means that with the ancients deities were of time and place: A god of the river; a goddess of a spring; a goddess of the city,i.e., Athena/Athens; the god of a mountain, etc. The God of the Cauterization believe was/is everywhere and for all time. He travels with you from birth to death and beyond. He isn;t just in a cave or a steam or sky, He is everywhere, He is always with you, because you --as an individual -- are worth His time. That you --as an individual-- are important and are worth taking into consideration.

You wouldn't find these tenants in any other religion. (Naturally, this isn't saying that nowadays other religions haven't nudged around to these believes, but...)

[yankeedame]

The God of the Cauterization ...

...what the heck?? How did I get that mixed up with "Judeo-Christian"?? It was one of the choice on the spell checker (don't as my why) and I guess I must have hit it by mistakes. Well, I guess that's what I get for trying to pontificate which eating a plateful of cheetos! (and they were stale, too!)

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

The very idea that human beings have individual rights not subject to the whims of an earthly monarch, but subject to the laws of Yahweh, is directly from Moses.