Its not all religion i agree, but religion has a part. Here in qatar, for example, religion still forms the basis for laws. Since this is the case, they will change very little as time goes by. For example, capital punishment is a religious requirement, it cannot change unless the judicial system becomes secular. Once that happens it is upto prevailing attitudes to define the laws and (using the UK as an example) they tend to become more and more "liberal" with time.