[Baron Morte]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

From a western judeo-christian perspective an easy way of looking at it would be to consider the ten commandments. To a large extent the origin of any moral principles we have in our society today can be considered to arise from that set of imperatives.

how about this logical sequence(timeframe) then:

1. people settle down and build houses and farms
2. people fight over land, and kill each other non stop
3. people realise that fighting will never end so they agree to create a chiefdom to settle disputes
4. the chief, whose only occupation is to attend to inter personal problems, creates a set of moral rules and principles that cannot be broken
5. the chief deaclares itself the son of god and there you have a religion
6. teehee!

As in Guns, steel and germs - jared diamond