mykonos

Great post torpex2002, I agree with all your points. It does often seem that religious people believe in what they want to be true as it comforts them as opposed to accepting -like some Buddhist philosophies do as well- that the universe just 'is'. They also like to ask us Atheists if we're ever tempted to believe in God. Sure when I once thought about it when I was 5 it seemed positive to believe in God as it meant that there would be life after death, but even then it ended up just seeming like wishful thinking to me. I suspect that many who have always believed in a personal God that's looking over them would be faced with an existential crisis if they were to seriously consider that he may in fact not exist and that it's left to you, and you only to discover what makes life worthwile, which is something they may not be capable of confronting. To answer the question what science can say about morality I suggest reading 'The Moral Landscape' by Sam Harris. A quick interview can be read here. I believe all our actions come from selfish reasons (even altruism), however that does not mean that we ultimately get our needs met by being destructive. When a friend inquired if Gandhi's reasons for serving the poor were purely humanitarian, Gandhi answered, "Not at al. Rather," he said, "I am here to serve myself only, to find my own self-realization through the service of others." There's also overwhelming evidence that we share common descent with apes. Just think of the same defunct gene we share that uniquely prevents us from producing vitame C, or that in some very rare cases a baby is born with a full tail that failed to get reabsored into the embryo as it was developing in the womb. Similarly some dolphins are born with hind legs.