The Brights' Net "Reality about Morality" Project
http://the-brights.net/action/activities/organized/arenas/1/
Status Report, November 2009
by Ruban Bala, Project Director
Persons who have a naturalistic worldview are perpetually "up against" the false but widely held cultural presumption that they, because of their worldview, lack certain requisites to be moral persons. In other words, many societies hold the incorrect belief that people cannot be moral without God. However, there is strong evidence that human morality doesn't come from God or other supernatural sources.
Objective:
The overall objective of the "Reality about Morality" Project is to develop educational and media strategies to build a broader understanding of morality amongst the Brights constituency and the general public.
Four Scientifically-Defensible Statements about Morality:
Based on a review of the multidisciplinary research literature on the natural underpinnings of human morality, four declarative statements have been produced, along with associated "substantiating research studies" deemed adequate to support
them.
Statement A:
Morality is an evolved repertoire of cognitive and emotional mechanisms with distinct biological underpinnings, as modified by experience acquired throughout the human lifespan.
Statement B:
Morality is not the exclusive domain of Homo sapiens-there is significant cross-species evidence in the scientific literature that animals exhibit "pre-morality" or basic moral behaviors (i.e. those patterns of behavior that parallel central elements of human moral behavior).
Statement C:
Morality is a "human universal" (i.e. exists across all cultures worldwide), a part of human nature acquired during evolution.
Statement D:
Young children and infants demonstrate some aspects of moral cognition and behavior (which precede specific learning experiences and worldview development).
Action Plan and Next Steps:
We will be developing clear and soundly based messages (in terms that can be readily understood by lay persons and especially transmitted via media). We will be building on the Web a useful resource "tool box" for Brights to use when discussing the source of human morality.
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