The fundamental principle of scientific humanism is that Darwin’s theory of evolution — specifically, survival of the fittest — can be applied to the human condition. Religions, emotions, money, mental illnesses, languages, races, and science have all evolved separately and together to maximize the chances of an individual’s genes being passed to the next generation. What follows explores some consequences of that simple observation.

An ethics derivable from science

You should love and respect all other humans. Two aims follow: do your best to ensure your descendants survive, and do your best to ensure your species survives.

• Do what brings you joy, and pay attention when surprised or fearful.
• Act on respect if you feel anger, disgust, hate, or sadness toward another.
• Encourage any group you are in to follow the same rules — and leave a group that will not.
• A good group holds its leadership accountable to members: it tells the truth, and respects and loves them.
• A bad group has leadership lying to, despising, and abusing its members.
• Every group, at any moment, is either good or bad — it is up to the members to make it good.

You should also follow the moral teachings of your religion where they do not conflict with the above, and earn enough to provide for yourself and your family’s basic needs — food, shelter, healthcare, and education.

The “grindividual” and the eight emotions

A pair bond evolved as the best way to pass genes to the next generation, and emotions evolved to promote group cohesion. Because groups behave emotionally much like individuals, any individual — or group of individuals — can be treated as a single emotional entity: a grindividual.

Eight shared emotions help ensure a grindividual’s survival: love, anger, surprise, joy, sadness, disgust, hate, and fear. In Freud’s terms, emotions unify a group at the ego level, money at the id level, and religion at the superego level — all coevolved to ensure the survival of both the individual’s genetic line and the groups they belong to.

Good emotions for a grindividual are joy, surprise, and fear; harmful ones are sadness, disgust, and anger. For humanity to survive, we should express the first three when they arise and mindfully act against the latter three.