Which came first?

Question

Morality or Religion?
A quick quote from an interesting article, and a link to the rest of it......

"These four kinds of behavior — empathy, the ability to learn and follow social rules, reciprocity and peacemaking — are the basis of sociality.
Dr. de Waal sees human morality as having grown out of primate sociality, but with two extra levels of sophistication. People enforce their society’s moral codes much more rigorously with rewards, punishments and reputation building. They also apply a degree of judgment and reason, for which there are no parallels in animals.
Religion can be seen as another special ingredient of human societies, though one that emerged thousands of years after morality, in Dr. de Waal’s view. There are clear precursors of morality in nonhuman primates, but no precursors of religion. So it seems reasonable to assume that as humans evolved away from chimps, morality emerged first, followed by religion. “I look at religions as recent additions,” {continued}

“Their function may have to do with social life, and enforcement of rules and giving a narrative to them, which is what religions really do.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/science/20moral.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5070&en=815abc62670c08d9&ex=1175140800&emc=eta1

oops, lemme put you on the first page of that....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/science/20moral.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=815abc62670c08d9&ex=1175140800&emc=eta1

Take some time and read the article if you're gonna make a smarty answer..... at least Dr. de Waal doesn't claim to know what no one can know... all we're working with anyway is guesses and FAITH... *whines 'there's a difference!'*

So if I have no religion, I have no morals? Not quite, I've met quite a few people with no religion -and- no Divinity who have wonderful morals.

Actually, if you look back through history, morals are not objective in the least... It wasn't immoral to own slaves once upon a time... and I'm sorry, if you're starving to death, cannibalism eventually stops being immoral.... it's immoral to lie, but how many of us do on a regular basis? No, religion doesn't -make- people moral, morals may change and evolve due to religion, and the depth of your faith -may- have something to do with how moral you are, but again, I've got atheists who shoot down the whole God/religion=morality thing.

No, I'm not trying to say "Oh, look, apes and monkeys are just as moral as we are." What I'm saying is that hey, look, apes and monkeys have a type of morality, and have no religion, and if I'm to believe what some people have tried to tell me through my entire life, they're animals and they're not even self-aware. Not self aware? Gotta be self-aware before you can be aware of others.....

Answer 1

God came first, he was morality, then he set down the rules for man..........

Answer 2

Forgive me if i am wrong, but doesn't religion dictate morality?
The last time I checked, morality is supposed to be an objective truth. The only thing that can be objective is something eternal, i.e. doesn't change, like the whims of human thinking.

Answer 3

Well I suppose Dr. de Waal just made a good GUESS. Maybe religion for animals is just doing their functions. Did Dr. de Waal observe that?

Answer 4

religion teaches morality