Atheist Morals

It's commonly asked "why do we have morals if there's no God ?"

It can easily be shown that good morals have a survival advantage - and so would be likely to evolve naturally.

Imagine two remote tribes of ancient cave people:

• one a gang of ruthless individuals who contantly steal from each other, rape each other and kill each other;
• the other a group that cooperate, help each other and respect each other's rights.

Which tribe is likely to progress furthest and fastest ?

When these tribes eventually meet and the inevitable conflict arises, which will have developed better hunting tools and weapons ? Which will be better coordinated and united in a common purpose ? Which has the better chance of producing the offspring that form the future ?

I'm not suggesting that moral behaviour emerged at such a late stage in our past - this example is just to illustrate a point.

Moral behaviour generally brings rewards over the longer term.

Immoral behaviour can bring short term rewards but generally with long term penalties (punishment, revenge, isolation etc.)

Moral behaviour is a good strategy for getting your genes into the next generation. That's not to say that a minority of immoral people can't survive and procreate very nicely by exploiting the trust of the majority. We all know these people but they tend to be unsettled roamers as they always need to find new victims that don't know their ways.

Read some Game Theory.