Reply to Question for atheists: What governs how you live your life?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]It's empathy. It's innate. [/quote]

Agree with this. But why is it innate?  Again, I am far from a fundie Christian. I'm speaking more from a spiritual view than a religious one. Where does that innate feeling of good vs. bad come from?

[/quote]

It is innate because the ability to empathize with others helps our species survive.  Most specifically, I believe a mother's ability to empathize with her children helps her respond most effectively to their needs, ensuring the survival of the next generation.  Those who successfully survived were selected for this trait by evolution.  IMHO

Where the discipline and moral sophistication come in, IMHO, is in applying this innate imperative to empathize with your own offspring to others outside of your family group.  To those who look different, act different, do not (on the surface seem to) share genes with you.  I believe Buddism refers to this as the "illusion of separateness".  If one can understand that the pain you inflict on the other is a pain you are ultimately inflicting on yourself and your loved ones.

So I need to remember when I want to be an ass to that person who just cut me off in traffic, that that person is no different than myslef, or my own daughter, and I should do unto that driver as I would have someone do unto me or her.

Some people may need a formal dogma to train them to this behavior.  I don't believe that I need this formal system and I am trying to teach my children to be moral without relying on mythology and fear to enforce it.  Being kind is its own reward.  [/quote]

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