Morals: what's right and wrong?

William Atkins
Friday, 09 March 2007 03:32

Science - Biology

American psychologist and biological anthropologist Marc Hauser, of Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts), has written the book “The Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong”.

Two interesting points of his book deal with the questions: “Is human civilization becoming more moral?” and “Does being religious make you more moral?”.

In the first question ”Is human civilization becoming more moral?”, Hauser says that research has shown that prejudices and racial attitudes of people are not diminishing and will probably not be eliminated any time soon. Hauser bases this claim on the theory that morality is biologically based. Since we are born with them, we may want the biases to go away, but they probably won’t—and they are here to stay.

In the second question “Does being religious make you more moral?”, Hauser states that being religious does not make one more or less moral. He says that, in general, atheists and religious people can equally be moral or immoral. Hauser contends that the two groups may argue the morality or immorality of an issue differently, but in the end morality is not restricted to religious people.

From the article “How we tell right from wrong”, in New Scientist (March 3-9, 2007), Hauser concludes, “A religious background makes no difference to your moral judgment”.