Elf Sternberg

I've always been somewhat worried by the people who claim that religion is the only incentive they have for not killing each other. It makes me feel that religion is filled with sociopaths.

One need only look at any other herd or pack animal and see a disturbing lack of bishops to realize that social animals have reasons for not killing one another.

But even if we disregard that. The reasons for not killing one another greatly exceed religion. Most of us are wired with a desire to live and we aren't lining up to be killed. So if someone is going about killing others, the rest of us have a desire to stop that person because it could be us or someone we care about some day. It should also be clear to anyone with a normally functioning brain that you cannot kill enough of whoever you feel is worth killing to do anything more than make them martyrs for their side. Killing your enemy will nearly always hurt your side more than theirs.

Murder is, of course an extreme example, used to make the point but you can find similar examples for most other things that make us 'civil'. People don't like liars so you have an incentive not to lie which has nothing to do with being a just or moral person.