evolution, moral and religion

[None of the above]

According to Spiegel.de ( the english edition ):

'In the United States, atheists are becoming an ostracized minority. But now evolutionary biologists are trying to turn the tables: According to their argument, religion is the source of evil. Morals and selflessness are not God-given - they are the result of evolution.'

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It seems that some researchers from the Oxford University ( and not only from there ) claim that 'there is almost certainly no god' and that the idea of god, the moral values and so on are evolution-based.

[Gjallarhorn]

And here I sit trying to avoid these threads, but to no avail.
As an atheist, I agree on the non-existance of a God, and I do believe religion to be the source of a great amount of violence, immorality, descrimination, and of much "evil".
Morals are not God-given, and are the result of thousands of years of social evolution, not necessarily the evolution of our species itself. Over time, morals have grown, become stronger, faded out, and so forth. I mean, I don't need the Bible to tell me adultery or murder is wrong. In most modern societies, that is a social moral which has developed within said society for generations.
Oh, and I couldn't have said this better myself: "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."
This quotation just lists many of the faulty traits religion brings to humanity.

Edit: And I believe Dieselmannen put it very well. (See the post below).

[Eris]

I'm not sure how to put this in other words than: Well duh.

[Manhattan_Project_2000]

Ineffective. You don't attack people’s beliefs directly; you slowly erode their foundations and let them fall of their own accord.

Although I have to agree that organized religion has been nothing but a pox on mankind.

[Ami~chan]

I don't care about religion, I really don't. Until I can see some very solid evidence that proves the existance of a higher power, I refuse to believe in it. I believe in gravity because it can be proven that gravity exists; until someone can prove to me without a shadow of a doubt that God exists, I view it no more true than a fairy tale.

[Hyperaesthesia]

The idea of morality being a result of evolution has been around for a while. Whatever the society, culture or religion, the moral code essentially breaks down to "Behave towards others as you'd like them to behave towards you". It's put in different ways, but this 'golden rule' is everywhere, suggesting that being generally altruistic is something intrinsic about humans. In addition, children go through the same stages of moral development regardless of where they live, and people all around the world tend to be more altruistic towards those who share their genes and are still capable of passing them on. So you might be OK giving up your life to save two siblings or six cousins, and not for any strangers or an elderly relative past reproducing. From an evolutionary perspective, that would be altruism for the sake of continuing your genes.

And obviously, altruism does help your species. If you share resources and take care of each other, the group is overall better off than if everyone was out for themself. It raises your status within the group and increases the chances that someone will take care of you when you need it. Although of course, this view means altruism isn't so great after all- it believes people do it to ensure reciprocal altruism in the future or because they're programmed to generally feel warm and fuzzy when they help people, and guilty when they don't. Which means helping others would ultimately be a selfish act in the end

[Ollie]

Although I agree that morals are definately not God-given, I don't agree with what these people are trying to do. Attacking or destroying other people's beliefs will only make them angry, or cause them to fall apart.

What we call morals are pretty basic - the ten commandments are not just religious, but are common sense: don't go around killing and stealing, and don't go joining cults that worship farm animals. Which is why I can sort of understand why many types of sexuality are considered immoral, since sex with an animal could give you some kind of disease.