“The enemy of science is not religion. Religion comes in endless shapes and forms … . The true enemy is the substitution of thought, reflection, and curiosity with dogma.” -Frans de Waal-
In a book coming out next week called The Bonobo and the Atheist, primatologist Frans de Waal argues that morality is built into our species. Rather than coming to us top-down from God, or any other external source, morality for de Waal springs bottom-up from our emotions and our day-to-day social interactions, which themselves evolved from foundations in animal societies.
For 30 years, de Waal has authored books about apes and monkey that open our eyes to the bottom-up origins of our human behaviors, ranging from politics to empathy. In this, his 10th volume, he extends that perspective by writing, “It wasn’t God who introduced us to morality; rather, it was the other way around. God was put into place to help us live the way we felt we ought to.”
The Bonobo and the Atheist
In Search of Humanism Among the Primates
Hardcover, 289 pages purchase
“The way we felt we ought to” has a long evolutionary history, so that de Waal’s thesis depends crucially on numerous and convincing examples from our closest living relatives.
(via fuckyeahnerdpr0n)