Nothing- I have met many people who refuse to even include themselves in the argument of "god" and "creation" and all that Jazz and they claim to believe in nothing, this also excludes evolution. it doesn't make sense to me, but that's what I have been told by some. So I guess they would say that there is no driving "force" or innate nature to anything in the universe: everything is coincidence and luck?
Evolution- You believe in evolution as the only force that created mankind and all other living things. So you believe that there are natural laws such as survival of the fittest and adaptation, etc. but not that there is any higher power in the universe.
So assuming that you (the answerer) either believes or has pondered one of these two alternatives (nothing or evolution) how can any kind of morality exist?
In the case of nothing I would think there would only be anarchy: because there aren't even natural laws to govern how life should flourish or prosper, so any person can behave in any way they desire to at any moment, because there is nothing holding them back or telling them that it is "wrong." Documents like the US constitution should have no meaning or importance in this case because it claims that "all men are CREATED equal and are endowed with certain INALIENABLE rights." Created and inalienable are absolutes that claim an "innateness," which a belief in nothing is clearly against. Furthermore, any government or law written would be written by the hands of a human, who is no higher or lower than any other human, so what gives that person the right to say "this is wrong" or "that is right?"
Evolution would be the same for things like law, government, and moral "documents" (like the constitution), because it would pretty much have the same reasoning. However, evolution would have some kind of guidelines for behavior because there are natural laws in evolution. However, in many ways humans would act just like animals under the belief of evolution: murder could easily be defined as survival of the fittest (animals kill each other all the time, and not always for food), things like "marriage" and "love" would be non-existent, there would only be reproduction, etc.
I apologize for the long details, but I wanted to make sure that my point is clear and that the answers are well thought out. I came up with this question when I was asking my atheist friend to explain to me the reasons he believed certain things were "wrong" (like lying or murder). It turned out that many of the reasons he gave me were based on things that were either said by other people (which is a never-ending argument, because you then have to ask why THEY believe it) or that originated in some religion in his past.
Hey I never meant to insult anyone, I tried to be as general and inclusive as possible, so please don't get angry with me. The R & S section is where these questions should be explored, so please don't resort to anger and sarcasm. Already I'm seeing people who haven't thought their answers through: if your parents taught you your morals they got them from somewhere, and if you are American more than likely from a religious source, I'm sorry but it's true. The comment made about eating young/babies is actually an interesting point = the Donner party resorted to cannibalism, and other people in the world have done so as well. If all human beings are equal, and there exists no higher authority in the universe, what right does any person have to judge another? For ANY act? (like cannibalism). From comments like "I know right from wrong" it seems like many people believe that morals are innate, or human nature, which is opposite to a belief in evolution, and aligns with religious belief.
I may have not been clear, but things like karma are considered to be "higher-powers," they are third-person entities or "laws" that humans are subject to. So karma states that if you behave in ways that put you at odds with the universal karma you will reap negative consequences, this is a higher power that states whether a person believes in it or not it is true. With karma a person who commits a murder on a deserted island with no one around and never gets caught by any human law will still reap negative "punishment" or karma regardless of human intitutions.
