CNN recently interviewed Frans de Waal about his new book, The
Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism among the
Primates. Of course the book immediately went on my “to read”
list. I’ve followed de Waal’s non-technical work for years and I
have come to trust his judgment. As director of part of Yerkes
Primate Research Center, de Waal knows apes better than most of
us know our neighbors. He has been exploring the origins of
altruism and empathy in the great apes and has come to some
amazing conclusions. His past work has shown that much of what
we have attributed to special revelation has actually arisen in
people through regular evolution. The apes, particularly the
bonobos, but also chimpanzees, show startlingly human reactions
to moral situations. In the interview, de Waal notes the
implications for religion. In his opinion, morality predates
religion since the former is seen in other primates while the
latter is not. As much as I trust de Waal’s judgment, the
unanswered question remains: what exactly