What more worrying to me, is the assertion by religious types that the only thing preventing them going on a baby-killing rampage is their belief in their chosen invisible superhero that lives in the sky deity.

Well I don't think that's entirely fair! I think it's more that they don't want to go on a baby killing rampage and think the reason they don't is because they no it's wrong and the reason they know it's wrong has something to do with God – if the only reason they don't kill babies is because they think God will be angry then that's a problem I'm sure!

What is more interesting is why we don't kill people if we think we might get away with it and there's a gain – empathy and guilt stop us; I could be rich if it wasn't for guilt! 😉

What is more interesting is why we don't kill people if we think we might get away with it and there's a gain – empathy and guilt stop us

I'd imagine from an evolutionary point of view it still wouldn't be a successful survival stategy, as just as you might kill people if you could get away with it, others would do the same to you, so as a trait it doesn't seem very helpful if you're living in groups. Hence (with all the normal provisos) we don't do it.

I don't mind religious people being creationists.
I don't mind them using blind faith as a justification for their beliefs.
I don't even mind when they think their god has got a plan for them.
I don't really mind them using their **** mixture of faith and logic as justification.

But it gets on my tits that they think they've got the monopoly on forgiveness.

I was in a shop in the USA last week – heard one shop assistant talking to her colleague about her husband 'currently studying creationism science'. How I wanted to go for a beer and a long chat with him.

I think persons religious beliefs say a great deal about them….. 😯

We (as a general rule) don't go around bumping each other off because it is unhelpful to the survival of the species.

Survival of self at the expense of the group is short-termism,
Survival of group at the expense of species is suicide.

Religion may codify morality, but religion is certainly not the sole arbiter of morality no matter what the religious types may say.

Your right to believe does not include the right to proselytise regardless of what commandments to the contrary your particular religion holds dear. Some religious people – certainly the 'Religious Right (wrong)' in the US – hold the the belief that Christianity is under a concerted attack because those same Christians feel they are being held back from expressing and propagating their faith.
Tough, you have the right to believe, you do not have the right to demand your faith be enshrined into law or to impose that belief on others.

I'd imagine from an evolutionary point of view it still wouldn't be a successful survival stategy…

Well indeed – seems it's hard to get away with; perhaps we mostly catch the bad people and kill them so as to remove them from the gene pool? There is a test to determine if someone is a psychopath; maybe we should pre-emptively strike and stop them reproducing?

maybe we should pre-emptively strike and stop them reproducing?

I feel a thread hijack coming……

Ok its here…who would you want stop from reproducing??

I'll start : Grotesquely Fat People….. Why?? Its an image I just don't want to have in my head….Fatties on the job.