The Origin of Morals

I hear many people ask me about where Atheists obtain their morals. Normally what I say is that how we behave is determined on 4 different elements: Our knowledge, our upbringing, our past experiences, and finally our genes. Humans evolved in a group and, based off natural selection, in this case, the most cooperative survived. When one member of a group would be killed it would weaken the group, lessening the chance of survival because there is less man power. Thal shall not kill. When one member of the group would steal from another, it could be taken as a challenge of authority or dominance, causing disruption with in the group leading to dysfunction. Thal shall not steal. When one would attempt to "move in" on another's mate this would cause dissension between the two members, causing dysfunction. Thal shall not covet thy neighbor's wife.

This video sums it up nicely: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94f2h-5T ... annel_page

I recently heard one of my Theist friend's take on the origin of morals. His idea was that when we were made in God's image we inherited his conscious which is why we see things the way we do. I argued my point then he came up with a question, which at the time I didn't have much of an answer for him because I've never thought on the subject myself. The question was:

"Say there are two men who committed a murder. 1 murdered in an unnecessary act of self defense (say the attacker was running from him and he shot and killed him) and the other kidnapped, killed, and mutilated his victim's bodies. Now, why would society say that one murder is worse than the other?" He then continued to say that our conscious is inherited from God and with out him we have nothing to compare "good" and "bad" to. With out God we would have no medium to base anything off of.

I couldn't think of an answer at the time but I have been thinking about it. I would have to say that society views one worse than the other because of sympathy. One murder is more understandable than the other, the one man who murdered in self defense had a reason for what he did. The other, though, has no reason to justify his acts for. Also, sympathy for the victim's that were mutilated, how they must of felt.

The way I see it is that sympathy played a big role when man was forming groups. Sympathy is a favorable trait when picking a mate. When two can relate to each others feelings it makes it easier to cooperate and work towards a common goal . We still see today that sympathy plays a large role in our behavior, some times when people have opposing feeling on a certain subject (such as religion) it can cause a division. This bus campaign is example of how sympathy pulls us together, atheists felt that they needed to be heard so they donated together to get the bus adds.

So, what are your views on the origin of morals? Were they developed over time or god given?

DeClutter,

Some others have morals.

Morality (from the Latin moralitas "manner, character, proper behavior") has three principal meanings.
In its first, descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct which is held to be authoritative in matters of right and wrong. Morals are created by and define society, philosophy, religion, or individual conscience. An example of the descriptive usage could be "common conceptions of morality have changed significantly over time."

Some evolutionary biologists, particularly sociobiologists, believe that morality is a product of evolutionary forces acting at an individual level and also at the group level through group selection (though whether "group selection" actually occurs is a controversial topic in evolutionary theory).

Some sociobiologists contend that the set of behaviors that constitute morality evolved largely because they provided possible survival and/or reproductive benefits (i.e. increased evolutionary success). Humans consequently evolved "pro-social" emotions, such as feelings of empathy or guilt, in response to these moral behaviors.
In this respect, morality is not absolute, but relative and constitutes any set of behaviors that encourage human cooperation based on their ideology. Biologists contend that all social animals, from ants to elephants, have modified their behaviors, by restraining selfishness in order to make group living worthwhile. Human morality, though sophisticated and complex relative to other animals, is essentially a natural phenomenon that evolved to restrict excessive individualism and foster human cooperation