I would rather be kept alive in the efficient if cold altruism of a large hospital than expire in a gush of warm sympathy in a small one.
Individual versus group selection results in a mix of altruism and selfishness of virtue and sin among the members of a society.
Religion creates community community creates altruism and altruism turns us away from self and towards the common good... There is something about the tenor of relationships within a religious community that makes it the best tutorial in citizenship and good neighborliness.
It is a truism that almost any sect cult or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
If any civilization is to survive it is the morality of altruism that men have to reject.
Mr. Speaker the fact of the matter is that the Ten Commandments are a historical document that contains moral ethical and legal truisms that any person of any religion or even an atheist can recognize and appreciate.
Britain relative to the U.S. is a highly secular society. Philanthropy alone cannot fill the gap left by government cutbacks. And the sources of altruism go deep into our evolutionary past.