For several hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of years, religion has been integrated in almost all cultures. Religion started as a relatively barbaric force that swept through all the continents until it enveloped nearly every culture. Almost every culture has adopted, forcefully at times, some form of religion. It is asserted that before religion, we were nothing but immoral criminals that seethed with chaos. It is said that religion saved us from an imminent self destruction of our own unethical actions. Many will even assert that we need religion as a foundation of morality. I object to this by saying we most certainly do not, nor did, need religion to develop our sense of morality in society. This is supported by evidence found in the human-like
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Many find solace in the idea that religion was the founder and creator of basic human decency, and without religion there would be chaos and anarchy in human societies. So the question arises, where would our morality be without religion? At first it might make sense. The 10 commandments proposes 10 rules to follow--even though, nowadays, only a few of these commandments are widely considered to be immoral if directly disobeyed. Another example is Karma: one 's actions will have an effect on them later in life that depends on their action. A common pattern that can be observed universally is that almost all religions attempt to enforce and influence fairness, compassion, and basic, human decency. Now, what many think separates us from animals is our ability to propose ethics and moral codes. But what many do not know is that animals actually have been observed to convey human-like ethical guidelines that we believe to have stemmed from religion. If animals can function and survive without religion, it is reasonable to say that we too can function without the need for …show more content…
You spend countless hours covering every square inch of space down to minuscule imperfections in floor tiles. You present the diagram to your boss, as does one other employee, and your boss proceeds to give the other employee a raise of an extra $10 an hour. When you examine their diagram, you realize the diagrams are precisely the same. You then receive only a $1 an hour raise from your boss. Perhaps you begin to feel as though you are being mistreated, your boss is obviously unethical, and has no sense of how to properly treat employees. This is completely rational, as well as human. A study conducted by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University showed that primates exhibit precisely this behavior. The experiment involved two brown capuchin monkeys. I will refer to them as subject and partner. The work each subject must do determines what food they will receive.One subject completes a task for a low value reward(cucumber), and accepts the offer. The subject then observes the partner work less or the same amount for a higher value reward(grapes). The subject then completes a task, but does not accept the cucumber as the reward again. The control test showed a 95% exchange rate when both subject and partner received the same reward for the same amount of work. The inequity test showed a 60% exchange rate when the partner
Many find solace in the idea that religion was the founder and creator of basic human decency, and without religion there would be chaos and anarchy in human societies. So the question arises, where would our morality be without religion? At first it might make sense. The 10 commandments proposes 10 rules to follow--even though, nowadays, only a few of these commandments are widely considered to be immoral if directly disobeyed. Another example is Karma: one 's actions will have an effect on them later in life that depends on their action. A common pattern that can be observed universally is that almost all religions attempt to enforce and influence fairness, compassion, and basic, human decency. Now, what many think separates us from animals is our ability to propose ethics and moral codes. But what many do not know is that animals actually have been observed to convey human-like ethical guidelines that we believe to have stemmed from religion. If animals can function and survive without religion, it is reasonable to say that we too can function without the need for …show more content…
You spend countless hours covering every square inch of space down to minuscule imperfections in floor tiles. You present the diagram to your boss, as does one other employee, and your boss proceeds to give the other employee a raise of an extra $10 an hour. When you examine their diagram, you realize the diagrams are precisely the same. You then receive only a $1 an hour raise from your boss. Perhaps you begin to feel as though you are being mistreated, your boss is obviously unethical, and has no sense of how to properly treat employees. This is completely rational, as well as human. A study conducted by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University showed that primates exhibit precisely this behavior. The experiment involved two brown capuchin monkeys. I will refer to them as subject and partner. The work each subject must do determines what food they will receive.One subject completes a task for a low value reward(cucumber), and accepts the offer. The subject then observes the partner work less or the same amount for a higher value reward(grapes). The subject then completes a task, but does not accept the cucumber as the reward again. The control test showed a 95% exchange rate when both subject and partner received the same reward for the same amount of work. The inequity test showed a 60% exchange rate when the partner