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Dang lurkette!! you said a moufull.
I don't think religion is a nescessity for morals. I think the golden rule applies to most of my morally hued actions. As much as religion can claim itself to be the source of the golden rule, it is really just the way one has to see the world if one has any compassion and/or sympathy.
Religion can atttempt to teach people morals, but it can't force them to be moral. It often tries to coerce using the threat of eternal damnation-a fairly immoral and therefore ironic- to instill morals.
Religion can also be the justification for really disgusting and bigoted antimorals.
The concept of good and evil is a manufactured one. Things just are.
We may think of infanticide as an evil act, but it is one thing that every species has in common and is generally justifiable by the logic of the more natural world. In the world of natural selection it is actually good policy under certain circumstances.
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