Evolution or nature are not sources of morality, that would be an appeal to nature fallacy. Whatever is natural has no impact on whether it is ethical. While altruism may have evolved to an extent in certain species, that is by no means the only thing that goes on.CXC0401 wrote: I read through the article and it was very good, but I guess it's just tough because there is not really a clear HERE IS WHERE MORALITY COMES FROM argument. I would say it comes from evolution and the nature of animals that survive on a social culture, like most apes. I don't know if someone said it on here or I saw it in a documentary but we see evidence that monkeys and dolphins display altruistic behavior today, but according to religion only humans have souls, and thus morals. So there would be ABSOLUTELY no reason for animals without souls, i.e. everything else, to behave in a way that does not benefit them directly. But still there is a 'it is inherently written in our hearts' type of mentality.
Rape, murder, adultery, war all take place in nature and may be evolutionarily advantageous in terms of passing on one's own genes but that has no relevance on whether it is ethical for an individual or society.
As to where morality comes from, religious people say that since humans are "imperfect", (idk what is the arbitrary criteria of perfection), so they cannot be a source of morals, only a perfect entity can give a perfect moral code, we'd just mess it up. Except we already just covered the issue of authoritarian morality and euthyphros dilemma, how authoritarian morality is bankrupt. And we never use the same logic to any other area - humans aren't capable of absolute/perfect science so we should stop trying and pray stuff into existence or refer to holy books for principles. Just because something is a man made construct that ofc doesn't mean it doesn't work. Science and tech work very well and so does ethics which is also a man made construct. By contrast just looking at religion and you can see how it is merely obeying an authority which they can't even prove exists.
Morality/Ethics is a field of research and there are books on the subject by professionals in the field. I was recommended this one by someone doing a PhD in the metaethics field.
Ethics: the fundamentals by Julia Driver
http://www.amazon.com/Ethics-The-Fundam ... 1405111542
(The less starred rating is from butthurt theists since she debunks divine command morality in the very first chapter)
Peter Singer's Practical Ethics is also supposed to be good. He's also someone who is big in the animal rights movement and in effective altruism.
http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Ethics- ... 0521707684
Since you're new to atheism, have you read anything on it?
Even if meets may be sketchy ATM, getting involved and actually making friends etc who you regularly interact with socially (not just formal discussions about atheism) and contributing to community building/meeting objectives can be very beneficial both in terms of having relatable friends and purpose. Otherwise as an atheist it can be an isolating experience depending on your environment and also somewhat purposeless since you won't be contributing to building anything that sustains beyond your existence..
Which is why I came here
