Regardless, it is the source of moral authority. Without religion morality has no authority.
The permisions to enjoy our freedoms as long as they do not impinge upon another's freedoms is a cornerstone of law, not morality.
I will try and avoid argueing religious laws-rules. The detail is, without religion we rely on natural law and natural law has no morality or sense of right-wrong good-evil.
civilisation as we know it is transitory and subject to being renounced in times of conflict. Without religion giving morality authority to the concept of rightwrong, the law of survival of the fittest empowers the action of genocide.
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they are determined by your society-community whose morals customs have ben shaped by the belief that at some time each person will need to account for their deeds to a higher authority and these deeds will be judged by that higher authority.
religions in general of course. Budhists may not face a higher authority but they are bounced back to `repeat a year` in the school of life when they fail.
I read somewhere there was a theory that the human evolved language to a such a high form because of our need to practise lying. I guess it's harder to lie using body language or some such. Our minds evolved because with all this lying going on we needed to remember our stories to avoid getting `caught out`.
Thinking has nothing AFAIC to do with morality. It's the thinking that convinces you it's ok to find a dollar on the floor and `you beaut' stick it in your pocket.
