(March 10, 2020 at 1:43 pm)Simon Moon Wrote: Sure it warrants an explanation. Interesting thing is, there are natural explanations that explain morality, No gods requiresd.
For example. Bonobo chimps, our closest genetic cousins, have moral behaviors.
Examples:
They will share food, even if it is in short supply.
Members will protect weaker members of their group, even if it puts them at risk.
They will adopt orphaned babies.
They will punish violent members.
They mourn the death of kin. The entire troop will mourn the death of a beloved elder.
And so much more.
Which god gave Bonobos their moral compass?
I don't think the bonobo argument does much to address morality in humans. Simply because humans aren't bonobos. We are far far worse.
If it's true what they say about bonobos, it is in their nature to be good to each other. But this is obviously not true of people. From Internet bullying, to domestic battery, to school shootings, to evil US foreign policy, people are cruel to each other. People often enjoy being cruel to others. And even worse, we can employ our unique reasoning powers to justify extreme cruelty. Whatever technological superiority we have over bonobos, we use to harm each other.
What little empathy human beings have for one another is so easily overcome that we clearly need something else to be moral.
I think that morality is something we need when our human nature fails us, since it clearly fails us so often. We don't operate through empathy, so we need some kind of abstract reasoning, along the lines of "I don't feel any empathy for those people, so how would I treat them differently if I did feel any?" "What guidelines is it good for me to follow, even if I don't really care what happens to those people?" "Even if I have judged that those people are unlike myself, how should I treat them so that I can continue to be a good person?"
This is NOT to say that when human nature fails us the only alternative is religion mandated by God. I am ONLY saying that bonobo nature, and a fortiori human nature, are not determinate of morality. Morality is largely to combat our human nature.