Why do these values need a source? Would it not be enough that they are shared?
I would say yes, the source is necessary on two levels:
1) for me to answer these ultimate questions to my personal satisfaction (I use my words here precisely recognizing these questions may not be ultimate to you)
2) for one group fo people to impose them upon another
For instance, Germany. From where does the international community get the authority to prosecute those who were involved in the holocaust? It was lawful according to their laws? Does the might of the victors in WWII make the actions of those men “wrong”? If they’d have won the war would they, by nature of their rejection within their laws, have been innocent?
If a time came when many nations decided to kill people and there was no international will to hold anyone to account would that make it ok?
From my perspective there are many rules of civil society that make no sense from a purely evolutionary perspective. I know that men like Sam Harris have challenged this and I’ve listened to his arguments but he always falls back upon an imagined objectivity to what is “good” and “bad” that isn’t self evident in the way he supposed it to be.
