Speaking to human evolution we are vastly different from other living things in that we are undergoing two distinct forms of evolution at the same time. Humans do not respond to change just biologically. We also have an evolution of the mind. We create new mental frameworks to understand and value our surroundings. Sometimes those new frameworks help to expand a culture or refine it while other times those frameworks utterly fail, and the societies that create them collapse.
This is far more observable even then natural selection, because we can even see it within our life times. Take recent history for example say the last 150 years. I live in the United States, and if you go a few hundred miles from my current location and back a century and a half you will find a morality that said that the owning of slaves was equitable and fair. Now fast forward to today if you are found owning slaves well don't make plans for the rest of your life current morals say that you are a deviant fuck that needs to be locked in a cage for the rest of your life. For the vast majority of modern Americans there is just no excuse to do this to another human being period. Back then people could easily justify their act or even feel good about doing what they were doing.
The truth is humans are born immoral, and only develop morals later in life. Humans literally learn to lie before they learn to tell the truth. We start lying to others before we even learn to talk. Then we learn our morals from our parents, and then at some point we develop sufficient self resolve to a point where we can question those morals, and even create our own morals.
You want another good example look to the Old Testament. Supposedly a great moral authority. Let me say this first the god of the Old Testament, and the New Testament are not the same god. The god of the Old Testament behaves in a fashion that we would consider nothing less then barbaric, and honestly it makes complete sense. That is a god that is a tribal god, and only cares for that tribe. That god not only had no qualms about committing heinous acts on behalf of that tribe, but actively encouraged those acts. The god of the Old Testament is a war god. He readily orders to murder of men, women, and helpless children, but he also actively orders genocide. There is basically little to no difference between the god of the Old Testament and Adolph Hitler.
Most of us would not condone this behavior, and this is the bedrock of three major world religions. Why don't those that follow these religions behave like this in mass. Well the truth is at the time this book was written they would have, and felt justified in doing so. They might even feel it a moral obligation. However over the centuries our morality about such things has radically changed. We basically don't take the god of the Old Testament as an example. Nobody would say their god wants them to genocide everyone they come across.
Morality isn't riggid, and it isn't even exactly flexible either. Further more it isn't even universal. You name a value that you think is universal, and I will find an example of a society who practiced the exact opposite. Remember those nice guy Spartans. Yeah they left their own children out to die of exposure, and encouraged their children to murder. Not killing in combat either. They encouraged their kids to go out and murder someone to prove their metal. There are nomadic cultures that encourage their members to rape and murder travelers. There are even tribes today that think nothing of members killing or murdering one another. How about some Central American cultures that practiced human sacrifice. Would just drag one of their own up to a slab, and cut their heart out. Probably right in front of family members which would probably be very happy for the honor.
Human beings aren't innately moral. They might understand fair trade, or non violence at an almost instinctual level, but at the higher abstract level those things are not only flexible. They are damn near negotiable. Read human history, or just watch the nightly news, and you will see human social groups that behave without anything that resembles what you would consider moral. Morality is just a mental construct that is reworked over time. What we consider to be moral today given a thousand years may seem barbaric. Perhaps they will think us disturbed for locking people up just as we are disturbed by the torture devices used a few hundred years ago. Hell its looking like Solitary confinement is perhaps the worst torture possible. It never corrects bad behavior. Hell it seems to be a trifecta for reinforcing bad behavior. Basically it causes prolonged mental anguish, strips the individual of social skills, and causes a profound form of post traumatic stress. Then we toss them out into the loud world. Then act shocked when they go fucking nuts on us.
Anyway don't give me this moral argument showing the ascendancy of man over nature. I mean yeah it is impressive that we took natural instinctive behavior, and introduced abstract thought to the mix. Meaning that we can behave in a way, but also understand why it can be good or bad for us, but it also means we can discount behaving well towards others. Morality is just the Evolution of Society.
