Maximizing Moral Virtue

[bennyboy]

So for this topic we will be accepting the premise that God isn't real, okay now what?

My main question is what should we do to ensure that our children inherit good moral values? Also, how should we run society and education so that we can ensure that our communities don't fall apart?

Without God, then a sense of goodness must be an instinct-- otherwise we'd have no concept of it at all.

Therefore, moral values are those which lead to circumstances which feel good.  I feel guilty when I harm others, and good when I help them, so I consider helping people moral, and hurting them immoral.  I feel good when my wife and children are happy and healthy, and bad when they are unhappy or unhealthy-- so things which will lead to their happiness and health are good.

Then we take a step toward outsiders-- a lack of goodness in other people's lives is an indirect threat to my own.  If EVERYONE can't have happy and healthy children, they may not be willing to see my family thrive.  So contributing to the community, especially to those in trouble, is moral.  Also, by way of empathy, when I see OTHER people's children unhappy and unhealthy, I question the moral worldview of their guardians-- in other words, I pass moral judgment on them, because they fail to share my feelings about what is good.

I think this calculus all comes down to evolution-- those who do NOT care about their children's health and happiness, or do not care about that of others, have compromised reproductive fitness.