Would I have been as morally & ethically “responsible”, I’ll call it, had I grown up in a world free of any religious beliefs? Difficult to say, but here was my initial reaction when you first posted this piece you wrote 1/09:

Well, my fine young cannibal, as fine an exposition on the genesis of ethics as I have read in a long time; that you peppered it with expletives makes it even more compelling to me.
but I’m kinky like that!

I was born into Catholicism and after digesting it for the first 10 years of my life said, “Thanks, but no thanks!”

When you speak of the efficiency of a more civilized society, you hit the nail right on the head.

Now I happen to believe in Good & Evil, but neither of these concepts are attached to anything like divinity… They are instead, in my mind, a matter of Life or Death.

Putting it in the most simplistic terms I can for the purposes of this forum, I will say that “Good” is life-affirming, life-sustaining & life-giving and “Evil” is that which destroys life &/or society.

This is an insufficient definition but it falls in line with what you discuss here as that “aha” moment when two competing factions realize that by combining their forces rather than competing with each other, they could sustain both their lives…

Love you, my sweet child!

You ROCK, infinitely…

xoxoxo

Then as a response to a few critics:

Thereby proving Matthew’s point that such “morality” or, if you prefer, “cooperative behavior” is Nature’s own way of preserving the species or let’s just call it life since things like amoeba are not complex enough to be considered a species by any stretch of the definition. Faith in the Divine has nothing to do with such levels of cooperation though it can certainly help. Morality is an innate mechanism that we humans have to be able to survive.

we are higher functioning but our animal natures cannot be denied.

I am referring to our biology, Fran. Our limbic brains are exactly the same as a reptiles. We are higher functioning by virtue of our cerebral cortex which is much more highly developed than any other animal’s.

As to our “souls”, I have no opinion. Morality to me is an intellectual choice. Some people do choose “instant gratification” & they wind up many of them in our prisons & mental wards.

We who choose “unselfishness”, do do because in the end it benefits us to help each other.

Our brains release serotonins & endorphins when we something beneficial for ourselves & for others. it is the way our species preserves itself.

Just like fucking feels good & is mainly for propagation of the species, so does doing good deeds which mainly for sustaining & preserving the species…

my definition is selfish, yet it isn’t…
Selflessness may be ultimately motivated by selfish rationale yet the acts are still generous.

Like being religious, the religious often do the right things out of fear of God & his wrath.

Yet the deeds they do are still “good”…. so does it matter why?

I’m not sure it does…

Tell me the “simpler” ways you refer to.

I am simply explaining the motivating factor for the species: endorphin release provides a “reward” for a biological necessity: survival of the fittest.

Masturbation, while tons of fun, provides no real benefit to anyone, except the masturbator & no, if that’s what we did all day, the species would cease to exist.

Hence the taboos placed on maturbation by most civilized societies & religious groups.

hahaha