In one of the threads you asked on what defined agnostics' or atheists' moral standard, and whether there is any absolute morality.
The answer is ... it all depends on what you believe. Most people who are part of an organized religion will state that their moral standard is God-ordained and thus is objective because well, that's how He (She, It, whatever) wanted us how to live.
Atheists, on the other hand, do not believe in an absolute moral standard because they do not believe in a god. Some who do believe they have absolute rules which govern humans and yet are not God-ordained are fooling themselves, or at least drawing too many conclusions off commonalities among societies and other religions.
I, myself, am a humanist. I believe that many of the Christian and many other religions' codex of values are very similar because they're obvious -
1. Thou shalt not kill - You can't have tons of killing going on otherwise there'd not be enough people around, and your society would be overtaken by others who have a higher population (and greater advancement since if you're killing everyone well ... you'll likely stagnate). This one is obvious.
2. Thou shalt not be jealous of possessions or of others' mates (partners) - This again is obvious because in a patriarchal or matriarchal society you can't have wonton disregard for your lover's feelings, otherwise it'll likely result in lots of strife. Of course maturity has something to do with it too and this rule provides a guide for young ones.
As for whether you think a patriarchal / matriarchal society with single marriages is natural or not ... that's a different topic
3. Thou shalt not steal - Too much stealing going on would obviously lead to more drastic consequences because let's face it, we're human.
And I could go on. I think the ancient people realized that the best way for a society to prosper is to lay down some rules and ancient peoples had very poor knowledge of how their brains work, but were very smart in how to govern others through religion, so they imposed rules and guidelines.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
