Primatologist Frans de Waal, who has been observing the behavior of chimpanzees for decades, has documented irrefutable evidence of ethical behavior in primate species.In his book, The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates, de Waal provides examples of compassion, understanding, and empathy in primates. These are not uniquely human characteristics, he argues, nor are they the result of religious belief, but an intrinsic part of our evolutionary past.
“Morality predates religion, certainly the dominant religions of today," he writes. "We humans were plenty moral when we still roamed the Savannah in small bands. Only when the scale of society began to grow and rules of reciprocity and reputation began to falter did a moralizing God become necessary.
"It wasn’t God who introduced us to morality; rather it was the other way around. God was put into place to help us live the way we felt we ought to. We endowed him with the capacity to keep us on the same straight and narrow that we’d been following ever since we lived in small bands."
In Search of Humanism Among the Primates
by Frans De Waal
W. W. Norton & Company, 2013
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