The Seperation of Religion and Ethics.

What does separation of religion and ethics have to do with anything? It is a brave new world we are living in, where old institutions like church, religions, are dyeing (changing color?), and nothing is arising yet to replace them. Religions provided extended social grouping, support for education, arts, great buildings, and numerous other functions. They were great for building community. The objection to atheism, seems to be lack of ethics, yet there is little connection between the two in any detailed way. Modern life has outstripped any ethics found in religion. Fraud is not a consideration in any religion, yet it is the primary issue of today.    

Religion is typically the belief in the supernatural, or description of events that would require supernatural for them to occur. This is the totally delusional part of religion.

Some claim that religion produces ethics and virtue. Bull crap. Fear does not keep people in line. It is often used as a threat, especially to children, but that is verbal abuse of a form. This life time is all we get. We need to do good in this life time, and our memory is carried on among the those who survive us. That is all there is. Ethics must be instilled in people, as it is right to do right. In modern society, people are less obviously dependent on others and the relation between each other, yet we are more dependent as we are less physically self sufficient. We can be more emotionally distant from each other, as we have the ability to communicate with each other over great distances, and sort our relationship by interest. 

Understand that our "purpose in life" is to cooperate, to reproduce, and in general to flourish as a species. Existence is meaningless until we paint on our purpose, our personal plan, for the day or life and then we can apply our motivation, once we have a plan. That plan can be action, or production, almost anything. It could be to create, produce, provide support to produce, or to raising of children or consciousness. Expending and extending knowledge, or documentation of knowledge, or transmitting that knowledge to others all works.

Evolution, the processes that brought us to this point in human development continue at there slow and unsteady pace with short periods of rapid change. We have not evolved to the same place, nor at the same time. There is a spread, likely some sort of normal distribution of development. We are not all at the same place.

As there is a normal distribution of brain cell column spacing, one end of the spectrum dyslectic, the other end autistic, with normal between, I expect that the range of evolution is similar. That leaves biodiversity high, which that suggest that there is better chances of survival.   

frosty tree tops one winter day