Groups create supernatural beings not to explain the universe but to order their societies.

Our moral sense really evolved to bind groups together into teams that can cooperate in order to compete with other teams.

The initial organization of the brain does not depend that much on experience. Nature provides a first draft, which experience then revises.

While it is useful to rebut charges and get your arguments out in circulation, you have to understand that arguments and evidence have little impact on people as long as their feelings tilt them against you.

Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second.

I'll suggest that the happiness hypothesis offered by Buddha and the Stoics should be amended: Happiness comes from within, and happiness comes from without. We need the guidance of both ancient wisdom and modern science to get the balance right.

In real life, however, you don't react to what someone did; you react only to what you think she did, and the gap between action and perception is bridged by the art of impression management. If life itself is but what you deem it, then why not focus your efforts on persuading others to believe that you are a virtuous and trustworthy cooperator?