If we are just highly evolved pond scum?

Exactly! if you believe we came from slime, what is there to stop anyone acting like slime?

The story of evolution is a story of the law of the jungle, dog eat dog, nature red in tooth and claw. This is the morality of evolution.

Without the struggle for suvival, nothing would have 'evolved'. Hitler who was steeped in evolutionist beliefs through his study of the German evolutionist Ernst Haeckel certainly belived this, and Mein Campf (My struggle), was his version of it. He took evolutionary morality to its logical conclusion in his master race policies and his eugenics program.

Evolutionists are in denial of this, but if the war had turned out differently and Hitler had won, would they be denying it now?

I think it has to do with while we evolved, we also developed a set of morals and ideals. I think there is a lot of gray area, but no one would argue that murder is wrong. But murder isn't exclusive to homo sapiens. Chimpanzees, for instance, have been known to murder other chimps. Not kill while sparring for a mate... actually just kill.

I also think that we care about poor and old and maimed because we all know that that could happen to any of us. We're all so close to a car accident that would paralyze us, losing a job that would take away our home, getting a bad disease and lacking insurance. We hope that if we're nice to those kinds of people, people in turn would be nice to us if that happened you or I.

And that, the hoping for reciprocal "care", is why I think there is truly no such thing as altruism. Everyone has a motive. Anyway, just my opinion-- it's neither right nor wrong.

yup, it's not easy. as much as some people would like all the answers given to them, the point of the garden of eden story is that humankind evolved to be able to distinguish between good and evil, something other animals cannot do. that is a blessing, because we can do good in the world, but it is also a curse, a burden, because it's up to us to make moral choices. those choices do not happen in a vacuum, but in a society of humans. so yes, those choices change. it's certainly not easy, but it's important.

but that doesn't mean anything goes. just because there are no easy answers handed to us doesn't mean we can give up and do anything we want. we have to make moral choices. we won't always make the same ones, but we must always work to make the best moral choices we can.

Why do we care about the poor, the old, the maimed, victims, useless, dumb, and etc? We not only care about ourselves on an individual basis, but we act such that we ensure the survival of our entire species. Non-human animals act on so-called altruistic drives as well, but if you take a step back and look at it, their behaviors are ensuring the survival of the species, which is more important in the so-called large picture than an individual.

The Australian philosopher...Singer?

It's the old "all morals come from a god, and specifically my god".

If you found out tomorrow that no gods have ever existed, would you start killing, raping and stealing? Is your belief the only thing preventing you from doing that right now?

If so, are you really a moral person?

If theists believe they are rewarded for doing good, it's only atheists who only do good because they are good, not because they believe they will be rewarded.

And let me point out that your god is not somebody I'd consider moral - sending bears to kill kids for making fun of a bald guy, murdering babies, drowning kittens...

P.S. The bible doesn't mention necrophilia - how do you know it's wrong?

For a more detailed explanation: http://www.abarnett.demon.co.uk/atheism/morals.htm...

All of the people who had the "evolutionary idea" that to get what they could as being a good idea ended up dieing because of it. In gthis day and age you need your fellow man to survive. One person out on their own will not survive. Working together and with your fellow man is a good "evolutionary idea" and we don't need god to tell us that. My mistake, most of us do not need god to tell us that. Some do need to be lead by the nose.

As a society evolves, its members set the social norms and "morals"

All the things you listed as attrocities have at one point or another been common place in different cultures throughout history. This is not because their society members were "evil" it is because that is what worked for that society at that time.

Society has always determined right from wrong and will continue to do it through the end of human existence.

You have been misled about the origins of morality.

Case in point, infanticide as proposed by the Aussie prof, was once practiced by many religious communities though human history. We reject it as immoral now, because we have an evolved sense of empathy, not because the God of Abraham, who told king David to dash babies on rocks, thinks its not nice.

Everything is just relative. But where would we draw the lines if there is right or wrong and it seems that your only viewing it from one perspective.

"Survival of the fittest"? If everything is just relative then how can you define fit.

Kill all the "old" people- First define old? And doesn't what they lack in physical fitness usually get mad up for in their wisdom and experience?Then what happens if we do that but theres just a whole bunch of young stupid people running around. Maybe is Darwin's theory is right they'll just die off of their own stupidity.

But how do you define stupidity?

What is unique about humans is the ability to reason. It matters not if we were created that way or evolved that way. Reason will tell us that the best way to achieve our full potential as human beings is to show empathy for our fellow humans. Thus we have the concept of "natural law".