The toxic mix of religion and tribalism has become so dangerous as to justify taking seriously the alternative view, that humanism based on science i… - Edward O. Wilson

True character arises from a deeper well than religion. It is the internalization of moral principles of a society, augmented by those tenets personally chosen by the individual, strong enough to endure through trials of solitude and adversity. The principles are fitted together into what we call integrity, literally the integrated self, wherein personal decisions feel good and true. Character is in turn the enduring source of virtue. It stands by itself and excites admiration in others. It is not obedience to authority, and while it is often consistent with and reinforced by religious belief, it is not piety.

Cultural change is the statistical product of the separate behavioral responses of large numbers of human beings who cope as best they can with social existence.

Because it is... far slower than Lamarckian evolution, biological evolution is always quickly outrun by cultural change.