re: #11 calochortus

I understand what you are saying and without looking at the statistical level of confidence in any of this one can only go so far in the anlysis, as I suggested above.

However your speculation

if fear of punishment is what keeps us honest, the non-religious should cheat more than the religious

is based on a religious assumption applicable to all. That is not what is stated here. The premise is that given a religious perspective ethics can take on different perspectives.

If one thinks about it that statement becomes self evident on any number of examples, not limited to Christianity.

As to the general issue of ethics, I take the “Dawkins” view that we are social animals and can only be so by observing certain standards towards each other, just like dogs and chimps do. We can rationalize it as an intellectual necessity if we wish to make it seem more civilized and ourselves more important, but even the most religious of us have the same building blocks, they just have more flexibility in modifying them to suit themselves.