Festival of Books: Science writers debate -- Is there a morality gene?

LeVar Burton accepts the Innovators Award during the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes awards at the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC on Saturday, April 18, 2015 in Los Angeles,

Calif.

LeVar Burton accepts the Innovators Award during the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes awards at the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC on Saturday, April 18, 2015 in Los Angeles,

Calif.

Claudia Rankine accepts the Poetry Award during theLos Angeles Times Book Prizes awards at the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC on Saturday, April 18, 2015 in Los Angeles,

Calif.

Tom Bouma accepts the award for Mystery/Thriller during the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes awards at the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC on Saturday, April 18, 2015, in Los

Angeles, Calif.

Jaime Hernandez accepts the award for Graphic Novel/Comic during the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes awards at the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC on Saturday, April 18, 2015,

in Los Angeles, Calif.

Jeff Hobbs accepts the award for Current Interest during the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes awards at the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC on Saturday.

T. C Boyle accepts the Robert Kirsch Award during the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes at the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC on Saturday.

Valeria Luiselli accepts the award for First Fiction during the L.A. Times Book Prizes at the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC.

Candice Fleming accepts the award for Young Adult Literature during the L.A. Times Book Prizes at the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC.

Festival attendees write what they are reading on a giant banner at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, on the campus of USC.

Young festival attendees write about the books they are reading on a giant banner at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, on the campus of USC.

Festival attendees look at books in the Book Soup booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, on the campus of USC.

Robert D. Putnam, speaks as fellow author Matt Taibbi laughs during the panel “America’s Rich and Poor: Looking at the Financial Gap” at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

Edward Kleinbard, center, of USC, speaks during the panel “America’s Rich and Poor: Looking at the Financial Gap” at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. To the left is Los Angeles Times

columnist Steve Lopez, the panel moderator, and to the right is Robert D. Putnam of Harvard.

Matt Taibbi, right, whose latest book is “The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap,” speaks during a festival panel.

Pamela Ribon, Issa Rae, moderator Ann Friedman and Mallory Ortberg speak on the Writing With a Smirk: Women and Humor panel during the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC.

Mallory Ortberg speaks on the Writing With a Smirk: Women and Humor panel during the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC.

Issa Rae laughs while speaking on the Writing With a Smirk: Women and Humor panel during the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC.

Moderator Ann Friedman smiles while listening on the Writing With a Smirk: Women and Humor panel during the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC.

Pamela Ribon speaks on the Writing With a Smirk: Women and Humor panel during the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC.

Audience members laugh as Pamela Ribon, Issa Rae, moderator Ann Friedman and Mallory Ortberg speak on the Writing With a Smirk: Women and Humor panel during the 20th Los Angeles Times

Festival of Books at USC.

Tavis Smiley, author of “My Journey with Maya,” speaks on the Los Angeles Times stage at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on the campus of USC.

Tavis Smiley, author of “My Journey with Maya,” speaks on the Los Angeles Times stage at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on the campus of USC.

YA author Robyn Schneider speaks on the Connections and Consequences panel during the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC.

Attendees laugh during the young adult fiction Connections and Consequences panel at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

Young adult fiction author Sarah Dessen speaks on the Connections and Consequences panel at the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

YA writer Emery Lord, center, takes part in the Connections and Consequences panel.

Amy Spalding moderates the Connections and Consequences panel of YA authors.

Author Emery Lord speaks on the Connections and Consequences panel.

Novelist Meg Wolitzer, whose most recent books are “The Interestings” and the YA book “Belzhar,” speaks on the Connections and Consequences panel.

Moderator Amy Spalding, Sarah Dessen, Emery Lord, Robyn Schneider and Meg Wolitzer take part in the Connections and Consequences YA panel.

Los Angeles Times photographer Jay L. Clendenin speaks about photographing celebrities.

Patton Oswalt speaks during the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC on Saturday.

Patton Oswalt, author of “Silver Screen Fiend,” and Wayne Federman share a stage at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

Wayne Federman speaks during the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC on Saturday.

Patton Oswalt and Wayne Federman speak at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC on Saturday.

T.C. Boyle, author of “The Harder They Come,” speaks at USC’s Ronald Tutor Campus Center during the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

Author T.C. Boyle, right, speaks with David L. Ulin, the Los Angeles Times’ book critic.

David L. Ulin, the Los Angeles Times’ book critic, left, speaks with author T.C. Boyle.

Jose Antonio Vargas, Michelangelo Signorile, moderator Karen Grigsby Bates and Erin Aubry Kaplan speak on the Human Rights and Social Justice panel during the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival

of Books at USC on Saturday, April 18, 2015.

Jose Antonio Vargas holds up his California driver’s license while speaking on the Human Rights and Social Justice panels during the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC on

Saturday, April 18, 2015.

Moderator Karen Grigsby Bates speaks on the Human Rights and Social Justice panel during the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC on Saturday, April 18, 2015.

Michelangelo Signorile speaks on the Human Rights and Social Justice panel during the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC on Saturday, April 18, 2015.

Erin Aubry Kaplan speaks on the Human Rights and Social Justice panel during the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC on Saturday, April 18, 2015.

Jose Antonio Vargas, Michelangelo Signorile, moderator Karen Grigsby Bates and Erin Aubry Kaplan speak on the Human Rights and Social Justice panel during the 20th Los Angeles Times Festival

of Books at USC on Saturday, April 18, 2015.

The moral sense of right and wrong far predates religion, the founder of Skeptic magazine said during a Saturday panel on science and identity at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

Religion puts things that seemed obvious into context, he argued, such as the Golden Rule (in essence, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”).

If religion was at the heart of morality, Shermer asked, why did religious texts leave out key rules?

“Why didn’t the Bible get rid of slavery?” he asked. “There’s nothing about raping. In fact, rape is one of the great benefits of leaders in the Old Testament.”

Science writer Jennifer Ouellette had a similar idea. Behaviors are not traits, she said. We all have a set of genes, but multiple factors affect behavior, such as social influences.

Asked about whether there is a “morality gene” or whether there would be morality without religion, Ouellete said all of these things -- genetics, social influence, environment -- “work

together to determine … certain kinds of behavioral patterns.”

There is no morality gene, because we have “different behaviors in response to social contacts,” he said. There’s an inherent instinct related to moral behavior.

“The culture you’re raised in tells what you should feel guilty about,” Shermer said. “But why is there a sense of guilt? Of jealousy? That’s where the evolutionary model comes in.”

Emotions are proxies for something else, he explained, the same way hunger triggers people to eat.

“The gene doesn’t matter,” he said. “The idea is that we are born with these things -- they’re not plopped down from a supernatural law giver.”

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