Explaining Present-Day Iran

Just the other day I was asked to explain how countries like Iran become so backwards in terms of humanistic values.  A big part of the answer is they never went through what the West experienced in the 18th Century, called the “Age of Reason,” or the “Enlightenment.” Their  theocracy has endured for the last 1400 years (Islam was brought to Iran in 650 AD by the Arab-Islamic conquest of the Sasanian Empire) and shows no signs of going away.

At left we see what Denis Diderot, a key figure in the Enlightenment, had to say on the subject.  I’m not sure we need that level of violence, but his point is not lost on us.