Recent conversations with a friend have revealed an area of exploration almost completely uncharted by me. I don't want to get bogged down in a lot of detail here, because I want to ask a couple of questions and don't want to strongly influence the answers received. So I'll just say for now that although I've rejected morality based on religion [that is, relying on that particular appeal to authority], I've tried to live by a moral code nonetheless. I'd like to stipulate for purposes of this discussion that "living my life" means just the essentials -- keeping myself alive, and keeping my offspring alive so that some of my genes are likely to continue in the gene pool. It's the same instinct that all animals have.

Within that context, I'm wondering why so many humans unilaterally (and often unquestioningly) reject deception and theft as immoral acts. If you've watched any decent nature show, you know that animals engage in one or both regularly. Animals pillage others' food stores, birds lay their eggs in other birds' nests, "paired" females engage in non-mate sexual activity so that males sometimes help rear young that don't have his genes, and so forth. Both intra- and inter-species, deception and theft are part and parcel of other animals' daily life. Couldn't some judicious sneaking and thieving similarly benefit human individuals? Or, phrased another way, is there some universal, non-religious, basis for the near-universal opprobrium those activities receive from "good" people (as opposed to those who make their livings from thieving and/or deceiving)?

Please understand that in asking these questions, I'm not endorsing the adoption of either behavior in any situation. It's a thought experiment, if you will, on differing levels for me. I invite any manner of substantive feedback. Idiotic responses (especially those that involve ignoring the first sentence of this paragraph) and the like will be shit-canned. Those that invoke religion will be deleted, but for different reasons (not because they're necessarily idiotic, but because they don't fit in the specified parameters).

[An alternative title to this post could be "Homework to help you prepare for the next Salon interviewee", but I figured that would scare too many people off. But it's a good thing to add here at the bottom, as a tease, and a possible hint.]