How can a civilisation progress, when a significant section of society is immovably transfixed by the ethics that were in existance at a point in time so long prior to our own?
The Human Race began (arguably) around 100,000+ years ago and slowly but surely it organised itself, realising that ethical principles were required, such as protecting your family and not stealing other people's property etc. Law and justice were developed along moral principles but morality develops over a very long period and need to be continually refined, as society moves on and realises that some past practices, such as slavery, need to be jettisoned.
Three of the world's so-called "great" religions are so mesmerised by events, which they claim occurred between 2000 and 6000 years ago, that they forcefully oppose moral progress. Ethical gains to that time were frozen and further improvements resisted. As Paula Kirby once said: "Religion actively discourages moral progress, because religion DEFINES morality as the attitudes that prevailed hundreds or thousands of years ago."
So here we are, a species with the intelligence to understand the Universe, but a society which censors so many issues by citing the moral standards which were unfortunately chronicled nearly 2000 years ago. If only the bible and the koran manuscripts had been lost before they went viral. Imagine: our civilisation would be more than two millenia advanced than it is now!