I was taught morality (i.e. murder, theft etc.) is a more or less universal constant in societies where as ethics (i.e. age of consent, treatment of animals, privacy etc.) are dependent upon individual societies or groups.

I have no symbol to use as a moral compass but I consider myself extremely ethical and moral. I never judge anyone by my own standards. Who knows what has shaped other humans into the people they are?

The Bible is used by ordinary people and political leaders to justify immoral things all the time. Our constitution was carefully crafted to form a democracy that works. Therein is the safeguard against anarchy. Since nothing is perfect amendments have been made to improve it. Religion is a false god. The Bible is a book with mixed messages written by people who represented their time. That is not to say that there are no words of wisdom within it. I'm still working on Genesis where we are told not to eat of the tree of knowledge. Do we really need an atomic bomb, GMO's, pesticides, pollution, global warming? Are those the result of knowledge? Don't we need to control world's population? Reading the Bible is one thing, Buckminster Fuller's CRITICAL PATH along with a lot of other books is a very good thing. Unfortunately, the religious community, particularly fanatics, claim that one should ONLY read the bible. That's a recipe for anarchy since it becomes a license to do anything.

No, humans lived in cooperative societies long before there were any written spiritual or moral texts. Read Jean Auels Earths Children book series, it starts with Clan of the Cave Bear.

That's easy...nope--contrary to what a lot of people believe.

No. Social customs, laws and survival mechanism evolved just like everything else. EXAMPLE: In primitive societies that relied on male hunter/gatherers to provide food for survival, you could not tolerate (and survive) if male adults were killing each other. Customs and laws like Thou shall not covet another male's mate's ass became standard, for example to keep order and the # of hunting and protecting males intact. Those tribes/groups who did not adopt such standards simply did not survive. Natural selection at work.