real quick on ethics

Yesterday, I left off on a short note on ethics. I know from many conversations that a lot of people do not know how ethics actually work. Once upon a time, there was a fantastically smart man named Thomas Hobbes. He came to the realization that ethics an most of human interaction is governed by an overarching agreement that we call the social contract. The social contract predates governments, religions, it is the foundation that allows us to move beyond a small circle of family and friends and trust strangers. At first it was very simple.

Don't steal my shit, and I will not kill you.

It is simple, but it is also an agreement, and a code of conduct. As social interaction became more intricate, so to did the contract. It is an evolving understanding that seeks to maximize the opportunities to pursue ones desires, while regulating individuals from pursuing goals that are harmful to other people around them. This means several things. It took a reasoning mind and a force of collective will that every rational person came to understand and agree that harming people based on skin color or place of origin was wrong. Today we are currently undergoing this transformation again for LGBT people. It is wrong to harm or treat poorly or unfairly any person solely because she is different from you.

At some point I will get into why religion cannot give us ethics, but for anyone wishing to investigat solo, the answer to this was given 2500 years ago by Plato, in his dialogue Euthyphro.
check it out it is online and actually a good read.
Untill later
Alex