A statement that is too human centric, I would say. We don't surely know if any life exists at all out there, and you are already making statements about some highly intelligent species' traits, their ethics, their energy sources etc !

You are attributing too much to the Romans. The way you mention these things, it sounds like they are the pioneers in all these areas.

1. Although particularly associated with the Romans, aqueducts were devised much earlier in Greece and the Near East and Indian subcontinent, where peoples such as the Egyptians and Harappans built sophisticated irrigation systems.
[wikipedia.org]

2. The earliest evidence of urban sanitation was seen in Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and the recently discovered Rakhigarhi of Indus Valley civilization.[wikipedia.org]

3. Stone-paved streets are found in the city of Ur in the Middle East dating back to 4000 BC.
[wikipedia.org]

4. Early records on medicine have been discovered from ancient Egyptian medicine, Babylonian medicine, Ayurvedic medicine (in the Indian subcontinent), classical Chinese medicine (predecessor to the modern traditional Chinese Medicine), and ancient Greek medicine and Roman medicine.[wikipedia.org]

5. Formal education was existent in almost every civilization.

6. The earliest public baths are found in the ruins in of the Indus Valley Civilization.[wikipedia.org]

You know, Stalin was an atheist.

So what ?!

I am a vegetarian and I had met many people like you who would take wrong even if I say that I am a vegetarian(I don't flaunt it, but sometimes at the lunch/dinner table, you have to mention it). As a matter of fact, I feel that, it is people like you who have a sense self righteousness. These people would inevitably ask me why I am a vegetarian. If I say I don't like meat or because of religious reasons, it is ok. But, if I just say it is because of ethical reasons (which is MY reason) , they feel I am being 'self righteousness'. As a matter of fact, I don't even care what others eat. But, when it comes to me, I am very particular about what I eat. I agree that there are vegetarians who are evangelical, but it is utterly stupid to generalize.

How exactly is this comment informative? Having agreed that caste system is still a problem mostly in rural parts of India, I must say you have very little genuine information. Caste system is a social problem, not state sponsored. The fact is that, India has proven itself to be a responsible democracy. You hear incidents related to oppression of lower caste people because press in India could freely report them. How often do you hear specific details of human rights violations in China? What proof do you have to say that India is systematically denying legal representation and denying justice justice to lower caste people? India is even implementing reservations in all higher educational institutions and in public sector jobs since it's Independence, for people who were traditionally denied justice. And, inhumane working conditions have nothing to do with caste. Comments such as above prove that westerners should be a bit more informed about the east.