The origin of morality

[A_Nony_Mouse]

To make a long story short, all humans have roughly the same moral system within broad limits. No human society condones gratuitous murder of and theft from members of that society. Gratuitous slaughter of and theft from non-members is not generally condemned from the earliest written records to the slaughter of Iraqis in the second Gulf War.

Note also these same rules of behavior, within the usual broad limits, are found in all social species from ants to elephants. In all species there are exceptions to average behavior which are dealt with by the social group.

Clearly neither the tribes of Borneo nor prides of lions have ever studied Christian morality yet have the same rules of behavior. There is clearly no basis for involving the Christian sky marshal in the matter of morality.

[Joel]

It's absurd to say that it comes from Christianity, specifically: it's not the oldest/first religion. To say that it comes from Christianity is to say that everything prior was immoral.

[Silver]

Morality arose from primitive man due to the fact that every man in the cave/village was needed, and to kill a fellow man over something so trivial would have placed the entire clan in danger due to lowering its numbers.

[Neo-Scholastic]

Morality arose from primitive man due to the fact that every man in the cave/village was needed, and to kill a fellow man over something so trivial would have placed the entire clan in danger due to lowering its numbers.

Prove it, otherwise it's just another 'just so' story and has no more basis in fact than a young earth creationist's calims.

[Simon Moon]

Bonobo chimps, our closest relatives, have been observed with behavior that sure looks an awful lot like morality, including:

Sharing food with other group members, even when in short supply.
Protection of other group members.
Adoption of babies when mother dies.
Punishment of violent group members, usually ejection from the group.
Sadness when member dies.

And more.

Which god is responsible for Bonobo morality?

[Joel]

Bonobo chimps, our closest relatives, have been observed with behavior that sure looks an awful lot like morality, including:

Sharing food with other group members, even when in short supply.
Protection of other group members.
Adoption of babies when mother dies.
Punishment of violent group members, usually ejection from the group.
Sadness when member dies.

And more.

Which god is responsible for Bonobo morality?

Hanuman.

[Silver]

Prove it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morality

Tribal and territorial

Celia Green made a distinction between tribal and territorial morality.[9] She characterizes the latter as predominantly negative and proscriptive: it defines a person’s territory, including his or her property and dependents, which is not to be damaged or interfered with. Apart from these proscriptions, territorial morality is permissive, allowing the individual whatever behaviour does not interfere with the territory of another. By contrast, tribal morality is prescriptive, imposing the norms of the collective on the individual. These norms will be arbitrary, culturally dependent and ‘flexible’, whereas territorial morality aims at rules which are universal and absolute, such as Kant’s ‘categorical imperative’ and Geisler's graded absolutism. Green relates the development of territorial morality to the rise of the concept of private property, and the ascendancy of contract over status.

From the viewpoint of evolution:

The development of modern morality is a process closely tied to the Sociocultural evolution of different peoples of humanity. Some evolutionary biologists, particularly sociobiologists, believe that morality is a product of evolutionary forces acting at an individual level and also at the group level through group selection (though to what degree this actually occurs is a controversial topic in evolutionary theory). Some sociobiologists contend that the set of behaviors that constitute morality evolved largely because they provided possible survival and/or reproductive benefits (i.e. increased evolutionary success). Humans consequently evolved "pro-social" emotions, such as feelings of empathy or guilt, in response to these moral behaviors. Conversely, it has been argued by other biologists that the humans developed truly moral, altruistic instincts.[15]

[Mystical]

Mr Infidel Wrote:
Morality arose from primitive man due to the fact that every man in the cave/village was needed, and to kill a fellow man over something so trivial would have placed the entire clan in danger due to lowering its numbers.

Prove it, otherwise it's just another 'just so' story and has no more basis in fact than a young earth creationist's calims.

Does common sense really need to be proven? Good god, you sound like an idiot right now.

[Godscreated]

Bonobo chimps, our closest relatives, have been observed with behavior that sure looks an awful lot like morality, including:

Sharing food with other group members, even when in short supply.
Protection of other group members.
Adoption of babies when mother dies.
Punishment of violent group members, usually ejection from the group.
Sadness when member dies.

And more.

Which god is responsible for Bonobo morality?

Elephants do the very same thing, so are elephants one of our close relatives also.

[Joel]

Bonobo chimps, our closest relatives, have been observed with behavior that sure looks an awful lot like morality, including:

Sharing food with other group members, even when in short supply.
Protection of other group members.
Adoption of babies when mother dies.
Punishment of violent group members, usually ejection from the group.
Sadness when member dies.

And more.

Which god is responsible for Bonobo morality?

Elephants do the very same thing, so are elephants one of our close relatives also.

Close? Yes. Closer than bonobos? No. All other animals are our relatives.
We share genetics with all animals.