“The term, naked ape, comes from ...”
Yes, I’m very much aware of where the term comes from.
“If you are an Atheist and you do not believe in Darwinian evolution, then how do you explain man?”
Why would I have to explain man? I have little or no interest in origins, and neither I nor anyone else knows what they are, and I have no interest in all the pseudo-scientist’s guesses and fairy tales, anymore than I have in the religious fairy tales. I am not plagued, as most men are, by some crying need to “know where everything came from.” All that is important to me is what is here, and what it’s nature is, which will be the same however it got here.
“If I understand your position, whatever is beneficial to you is right, and whatever causes death or misery is wrong? Is that your basis for determining what is right and wrong?”
Certainly not. That is much more like hedonism than ethical principles. The basis of my ethical principles is the nature of reality and the nature of man. The most important aspect of human nature is volition, the ability and necessity to consciously choose all one does, which means he is responsible for all he does, a responsibility reality does not allow one to evade. That is the basis, but ethics is a very broad philosophical field, impossible to delineate in a few words.
Hank
That's like saying "the basis for my house is the electrical wiring." And pretending that it put itself there without the aid of an Electrician.
The most important aspect of human nature is volition, the ability and necessity to consciously choose all one does, which means he is responsible for all he does, a responsibility reality does not allow one to evade.
Unless some outside Force mercifully mitigates your errors and graciously pays your bill.
It seems that by eliminating the most important questions and selecting only things that you believe are important that you have come up with a belief system that only confirms what you choose to believe in the first place. There is no room for a discussion on that basis. Even after all this time, I still have no idea why you believe the things that you do, nor do I understand the standard by which you make ethical decisions. All that I get is that man is responsible for his decisions. That does not tell me anything about what those decisions should be, or how someone should make those decisions. Those aspects do not seem to be important to you, but that is what ethical or moral philosophy is all about. For what it is worth, there is a debate about whether anyone actually makes a free choice, since are choices are made upon external authorities, such as family, friends, authors, and teachers. That is in itself worth pondering.