(February 18, 2011 at 5:52 pm)OnlyNatural Wrote: I firmly believe that human morality has evolved along with the rest of us, and religion/God is not necessary (and in fact often gets in the way) when it comes to behaving ethically.
I'm sure the atheists here agree, I just thought this video summed it up well.
I disagree. Animals have evolved with instincts that come with their species social structure. Just because we happen to have social instincts, and that we glorify them, does not mean they are "morals". Chimps treat their children good, and pretty much adhere to social structures that are necessary for a species with their type of brain to propagate successfully. One could say that is moral. Chimpanzees will also get a flair for meat and attack a group of lesser evolved monkeys, or even other groups of chimps to just outright kill them and eat them. Sometimes the chimps kill just for the sake of killing. Is that moral as well?
Now if you mean by "evolved" then you mean Zeitgeist (spirit of the times), then I would agree with you to an extent, but I am not sure by what measuring stick you are using to determine that morals have evolved. Is our morals better than the morals of people 1000 years ago? Who gets to be the judge? Me or you? Is it okay for Stalin and Hitler to be the judge of what is moral and what is not?
