Morality, after all, has nothing to do with selflessness. On the contrary, self-interest is precisely the basis of the categorical imperative.

Darwin wasn't just provocative in saying that we descend from the apes - he didn't go far enough. We are apes in every way, from our long arms and tailless bodies to our habits and temperament.

Future benefits rarely figure in the minds of animals.

There's actually a lot of evidence in primates and other animals that they return favors.

Popular culture bombards us with examples of animals being humanized for all sorts of purposes, ranging from education to entertainment to satire to propaganda. Walt Disney, for example, made us forget that Mickey is a mouse, and Donald a duck. George Orwell laid a cover of human societal ills over a population of livestock.

Religion may have become a codification of morality, and it may fortify it, but it's not the origin of it.

We justify the inequalities by saying some people are just better and smarter than others and the strong should survive and the poor can die off.