A newborn? A baby can't even control it's own arms and hands until about 3 months.

Nah, Hitch was spot on. Humans were decent before religion was invented. Human decency preceded religion, just as he said.

@JonnaBononna
Not precisely as he said. Humans were decent to kin and to certain others who were viewed as potential allies, but were not, and still are not (by and large) to strangers or people who have different colored skin or sexual practices and so on. Humans need additional persuasion to do that.

@skado Religion is the largest dissuade factor from treating any "other" with decency.

@BufftonBeotch
I realize that is many people’s experience. But our personal experiences don’t encompass everyone’s experience or the collective experience of our species. I think what your are calling religion is actually the corruption of religion. I don’t know of a religion that officially, scripturally dissuades practitioners from treating others with decency. That is the action of members who either don’t read, or don’t obey their own religious doctrines. And they may well represent the majority of religious people, but they don’t represent the general thrust of the official religious tenets.

Do you know of a religion whose official central doctrine is to mistreat others? The one I grew up in said to love your neighbor as yourself, and to treat strangers with kindness.

@JonnaBononna religion was originally irrelevant to morality. you're desire to desparage it doesn't change that.

@skado Yes as you say. "Humans were decent to kin and to certain others who were viewed as potential allies, but were not, and still are not (by and large) to strangers or people who have different colored skin or sexual practices and so on. Humans need additional persuasion to do that. " And that is why we have nation states, international institutions and law, racial and sexual equality pressure groups, and secular charities etc. And why religion, which was set up to forward none of those justifiable things, finds itself a natural role only in opposing them, and supporting those who wish only to foster racial, sexual hate a zenophobia etc.. Yes It does some good by the way, but that fades fast now. Because the good causes are only incidental asides to religion, whose main purpose is to foster narcissism, and because people can easily see that other institutions do those jobs more effectively without the extra baggage, that even the best intentions of the religions bring with them.

And even before that, the additional pressure to be kind and moral to strangers, and to view others as potential allies, came far more from practical sollutions to practical problems, such as trade networks and the need for agricultual irrigation, than it ever did from religion.

And perhaps most of all, simply as a side effect of the technology called language. Which enabled us to communicate sympathy for and the understanding of others, far beyond physical contact.