Religious fundamentalists often claim that we would not have (could not have) morality if it were not something that already existed and was supplied by an outside agency, an ultimate arbiter that created divinely inspired moral laws. The claim is often backed by a question that asks if fixed moral laws are not supplied divinely or externally, then how did they come to be, implying that humans are incapable of defining morality alone.

Historically speaking it seems that morals are based on (or have been hijacked by) religion. Brought up Catholic, I freely admit that I've been heavily influenced (both positively and negatively) by the Christian concept of right and wrong. It's not something I regret and I recognise that religion has had a major impact on my life... my late mother was born protestant, converted to Catholicism to marry my father, then converted back on his death. Even our legal system is Judeo-Christian in nature, UK laws being based on protestant Christian laws, themselves based on Catholicism.

On the face of it, one could create a reasonable argument that morality is religious in nature. However, there is no definitive proof of this and there exist reasons to doubt.

Is it right (or moral) to kill? The bible (and other major religious texts) specifically say no yet also clearly demonstrate that it is acceptable under certain conditions and particularly whenever their gods say so. As a race we kill, destroy and maim: we kill to defend ourselves, our families, our religions, our cultures & our countries; we kill out of desperation and the need to survive; we kill when others disagree with our points of view! In fact we kill just about any time it suits us to do so and human history is replete with events where we happily slaughter each other for whatever reason we care to invent. While the Christian bible says "thou shalt not kill", it also advocates atrocities, violence against homosexuals, children & women and racial genocide. Indeed, Richard Dawkins has described the Christian god as "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully." with some significant justification.

Outside of scripture, looking at cultures worldwide and back through history, it's easy to see that morality is not absolute and varies depending on many factors:

• Changing Morality (morality has changed over time)
• Different Moralities (morality varies by culture, location, race, religion, situation)
• Atheist Morality (despite a complete lack of faith atheists can be seen to be highly moralistic & honest individuals)

In my view humans, our distant ancestors probably being pack animals of some kind, have simply evolved to co-operate with each other. The idea of not murdering, stealing, lying evolved (and have continued to be) preferential within our culture simply because it is better for the pack be that family, town, county, country, culture or whatever.

Take the commandment (the sixth in the King James version), "Thou shalt not kill", as a result of which most countries of Christian heritage have it enshrined both morally and within law that to kill is wrong under most circumstances. However there are exceptions such as in times of war, in self-defence. Despite being an adherent of science & evolution and an atheist I fully recognise the logic of this. To kill another human without reason is a pointless waste of life and, in evolutionary terms, wrong ... all I would be doing would be reducing the genetic potential of my species. If I didn't adhere to that and went around killing people as and when I liked then pretty soon someone is going to notice and they are going to either lock me away for a very long time or kill me to prevent my murderous spree. Whilst I accept that many fundamental laws are based on Christian or religious scripture, I would also say that it is likely that most scripture of this kind is based on the "then current day" common sense and practice.

Interestingly (at least in the King James version of the Christian bible) this commandment is exactly as stated above ("Thou shalt not kill") and does not specifically allow for any flexibility of interpretation (killing is wrong in all circumstances) with regard to circumstance, sex, sexual orientation or species so one might be forced to wonder why the bible is then replete with cases of exactly that. I also wonder if fundamentalist Christians who believe every single word of the bible to be without flaw yet also hunt, are aware they are disobeying their own deity's commandments. It doesn't matter whether they are killing to defend, to provide food or whatever ... it says in the Christian bible that "Thou shalt not kill" ... what a bunch of hypocrites!

One man's ceiling is another man's floor. There is no absolute truth but that may change one day.