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**Skepticologist** · 09-19-2007, 07:52 PM

It's been observed that there are plenty of good people who aren't religious, and I can think of several of my own acquaintance. For the first 40+ years of my life, as a practicing christian, I assumed that my moral values either came straight from the bible, or indirectly through my parents. Admittedly, a lot of viable moral values are contained in the bible, as well as most all texts of world religions. But, having evolved into an agnostic, I can no longer attribute their origin to a supreme being.

So, my question is, "If morality didn't come from god, where did it come from?" I'm certain there are lots of philosophical and psychological treatises on this subject, but I currently lack the discretionary time to ferret them out. Instead, I'm taking the easy way out and hoping those of you who have done some ferreting in this regard will provide me with some shortcuts. And I'm certainly open to uninformed ideas.

My own preliminary conclusion is that the development or morality is entirely consistent with Darwin's theory of evolution. Most of the moral codes I can think of would serve, if observed, to perpetuate the human species because, without them, we'd end up killing each other off until the species was annihilated.

09-19-2007, 07:52 PM	#1 (permalink)
Skepticologist Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 456	The Origin of Morality It's been observed that there are plenty of good people who aren't religious, and I can think of several of my own acquaintance. For the first 40+ years of my life, as a practicing christian, I assumed that my moral values either came straight from the bible, or indirectly through my parents. Admittedly, a lot of viable moral values are contained in the bible, as well as most all texts of world religions. But, having evolved into an agnostic, I can no longer attribute their origin to a supreme being. So, my question is, "If morality didn't come from god, where did it come from?" I'm certain there are lots of philosophical and psychological treatises on this subject, but I currently lack the discretionary time to ferret them out. Instead, I'm taking the easy way out and hoping those of you who have done some ferreting in this regard will provide me with some shortcuts. And I'm certainly open to uninformed ideas. My own preliminary conclusion is that the development or morality is entirely consistent with Darwin's theory of evolution. Most of the moral codes I can think of would serve, if observed, to perpetuate the human species because, without them, we'd end up killing each other off until the species was annihilated. __________________ "I am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of." Clarence Darrow