Despite the shallow myth to which JT fully subscribes, European and Mediterranean polytheism were not so much more religiously tolerant than the three monotheist, Abrahamic religions as some nowadays insist, and intolerance is anyway neither the only nor the worst sin a religion may commit.
Too see this, consider the ways in which Central American polytheism was spectacularly more savage than any of the Abrahamic religions.
And the plain silliness of JT's talk of the "pluralism" of polytheism is apparent as soon as we think of the Catholic cults of the saints, and realize he is commending polytheism for tolerating itself.
And another thing to bear in mind: the ancient world - indeed, the whole world - built its pagan civilization on the backs of millions of slaves, while the Christian civilization of the late 18th and 19th Centuries abolished slavery.
It is notorious even in the deepest darkness of modern pop culture that the cruelties of Roman slavery extended to forcing captives to kill each other in the ring in large numbers for the entertainment of the mob, and revolts put down with enormous violence and savagery.
On the whole, JT's history lesson on the rise of Abrahamic monotheisms is ignorant, silly, bigoted, and unjust to all three, as is his blindness to important differences among them.
Come to that, JT is in every respect a writer whose very style betrays exceptional ignorance and a poor education.
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