Replacing Religious Morality

[genkaus]

Perhaps he was in the process of teaching them. But you're missing the point. Forget morality as it exists today. What we have today is a complex construct, developed over thousands of years. What I'm talking about is the very basic origins and reasons for right and wrong. We have the same basic morality as wolves and elephants and other social animals. The point I'm making is that it doesn't come from God, it comes from evolution. Morality began as a means of survival. But where it is right now is a result of our minds expanding beyond survival of the fittest.

First of all, what you talked about in your previous post was about the essence of morality, the basic principle of morality and the need for morality - not the origin of morality. The two are different things and conflating them would be a mistake.

Secondly, you, along with a lot of other atheists, seem to think that simply saying "evolution" is a sufficient explanation for the origin of morality. In a way, it parallels how theists refer to god as the source of morality. And, as if evidence for your argument, you give examples of wolves and elephants and how their behavior is so similar to humans. Except, animal morality and human morality do not fall in the same category. And here's the big difference - we do not hold animals morally responsible for their actions. If a lion eats his cub, we do not brand it as evil. If a wolf rapes a female wolf, it is not dragged to court to face justice.

The fundamental difference between human and animal morality is that in order to hold someone responsible for their actions, they should have the capacity to consider them and their consequences. The same standard does not apply to other animals. Which is why talking about the evolved social instinct of empathy as the basis for morality fails.