May 8, 2012 -- 11:59AM, SeraphimR wrote:

May 8, 2012 -- 9:57AM, Marcion wrote:

I suggest you brush up on your history. The magnificent civilization you refer to was due to Akhenaten who abolished the Aman Re cult and became the first monotheist pharoah.

I took your suggestion and brushed up on my history.  My recollection was correct. Akhenaten had virtually no impact on Egypt.

Wikipedia has this to say about Akhenaten:

"Akhenaten tried to bring about a departure from traditional religion, yet in the end it would not be accepted. After his death, traditional religious practice was gradually restored, and when some dozen years later rulers without clear rights of succession from the Eighteenth Dynasty founded a new dynasty, they discredited Akhenaten and his immediate successors, referring to Akhenaten himself as "the enemy" in archival records.^[10]

He was all but lost from history until the discovery, in the 19th century, of Amarna, the site of Akhetaten, the city he built for the Aten."

Wikipedia! Wow! Now there's an authoritative source.

Enjoy your ego trip. The basic premise of the thread is still true i.e. priest-based religions are inherently corrupt.