NC, I'm not very good at tennis but it does seem that you have put the ball outside the court so I'm not going to return that ball (for example I did not say that there was a prevailing view of inadequacy. Did you say prevailing because you wanted to allow the possibility of some inadequacy on the part of the Europeans. If you did then you understood what I was actually saying and in that case the ball was in). And I am definitely not romantic - more of a realist/idealist with romantic edges that have disappeared to achieve my exit form JWs.
But as is it now my turn to bat, this what I will say. Political structures use religion to achieve their ends and these political structures when focused on their own aims to the exclusion of all else are brutal and dangerous. Politicians (kings, chieftians in the old days) seem to have used religion to get themselves into office and then used it to justify killing and genocide in order to keep themselves in power. Mind you they believe that they are the best thing for their people and they probably are at that particular time in history (there is no denying this if we set aside judgement and examine figures like Julius Caesar and Napoleon - mind you they died early and many considered this a blessing. But they brought in much needed changes by breaking up the power of the aristocracy who at the time were using religion as one of their many measures to keep power in their own hands). Of course all members of the aristocracy were not like this. It is no different today but will we learn from the past? it seems to me that the evolution theory was used in the same way that religion was used.