You’re not alone. Many religious people cannot fathom that something outside of and independent of their moral system exists. Take the old discussion of atheists as satanists. What is that joke again? “No, we don’t believe in any of your imaginary friends.“
Yes because you still interpret the similarity of morals as a causal direction (‘legacy’, ‘divorce‘) from religion. You’re giving religion way too much credit there.
Fair enough. Then yes, it’s hard for me to believe that the west’s wholesale adoption of Judeo-Christian ethics was unrelated to it steeping in Christianity for a thousand years—the gradual but significant ethical transition just happened to coincide with the Christian era.
> Many religious people cannot fathom that something outside of and independent of their moral system exists.
Well, this isn’t exactly an unpopular theory among Atheists either. Never mind that Atheists can go toe to toe with religious people with respect to dogmatic faith, tribalism, etc. Perhaps it’s not an issue of categorical superiority?
Again, what you consider "Judeo-Christian" was there before Christianity. Look no further than ancient Greece. Christianity was very successful in hijacking existing ideas and customs (Christmas, Easter) to be more easily adopted, and now claims to be the origin and cause of all (the good) that comes with it - which is the topic in this thread.
>Well, this isn’t exactly an unpopular theory among Atheists either.
What part? You think Atheists cannot see that religion exists and that people derive their 'morals' from that? Dogmatic faith? That's absurd, and sounds again like Christianity imposing their worldview onto others when faced with different worldviews. It's the same 'Atheists=Satanists' again, in which Atheists are only understood in the framework of Christianity.