the cosmos' hierarchy of scale

We occupy a small, insignificant planet, in an insignificant corner of an insignificant galaxy, in an immense if not infinite universe that neither knows nor cares that we exist. There is no God! If we don't look after each other and the life that co-exists here with us , no-one else will.

The highest moral value, in fact, is our common humanity and the obligation it confers on us to be good to each other.

"Be excellent to each other"

When this is more widely recognized - when, not if - then, and only then, we will finally have a religion worthy of our worship.

"Party on, dudes!!"

"It is true that genetically and culturally we all express differences, but we are more similar than different in our basic needs, our physical and emotional drives."

That may be true, but one can't deny that - more often the not - the differences in individuals eclipse the similarities between them.

"Substituting a rational, evidence based and yes "anthropocentric" humanist (isn't that a tautology?) philosophy stikes me a a much more assured route to peaceful co-existance than vague tribal superstition."

But there are many other philosophies to choose from besides primitive superstitions (there all pretty much the same) and humanism: what about objectivism, existentialism or (dare I say it... my personal philosophy) nihilism? It seems to me that to pick one philosophy and tout it as being intrinsically superior to the alternatives availible is ridiculous...

For the Chaplain:

Is "worship" of something a necessary component of religion? Is "worship" a good thing? My current thinking is that "worship" of anything is unhealthy.

I second that position. Obedience, respect and recognition, where merited, are appropriate responses to wisdom and authority. To me, the term "worship" implies that the object of worship is somehow on an intrinsically higher level than the giver. I see no basis for such a distinction, so I reject that idea. Teaching people to question, rather than worship, might have gone a long way toward preventing some of the harms that have been perpetrated in a deity's name.

For Alex:

People with ASDs like autism and asperger's do seem to have the same emotions as others but respond to them differently and definitely don't look at the world the same way as neurotypicals; this is a gulf that can be bridged, true, but trivializing it or denying it won't help that.

Granted, in the interest of metaphor, I made that point overly broad. Nevertheless, it's accurate to say that despite cultural differences, and despite the rare biological exceptions, there are hundreds of traits, attitudes, and activities which have been universally found in every human culture that has been studied. Here's a list of some of them, compiled by Donald E. Brown. It's not too inaccurate to say that, even in cases such as autism, the similarities that unite us are more profound than the differences.

Our perception of the cosmos may necessitate a certain humanistic/anthropomorphic perspective, but it doesn’t follow that we are limited to only that. Nothing prevents us from excluding certain groups from our ‘tribe’ as theistic religions have done, nor prevents us from seeking connection to all life as Buddhists or Jains have done. Wouldn’t a rational, evidence based, belief system point to the latter?