One of the difficulties when considering morals behaviour today is the fact that the way we live has changed substantially since the basic principles were first formulated.

For obvious, practical reasons, you don't torture babies born to your tribe. It's also bad practice to murder, steal from, or sleep with the spouse of, one of your own tribe.

On the other hand, on purely pragmatic grounds, it can be good practice at certain times to steal from, kill. or kidnap the mates and children of, another tribe!

People forget, ignore or simply don't realise that the Ten Commandments -held to be at the root of Judeo-Christian morality - werer onlky ever intended to apply to and between the Tribes of Israel. The Old Testament if full of occasions when Israel massacred, looted and pillaged other peoples, and God was always OK with it.

Now, of ocurse, insdtead of recognising every face we see every day, we live in the middle of an amorphous mass of strangers. Thus morality now has to be about keeping the peace, not supporting the tribe. Difficult, because we are not hard-wired to be nice to strangers, but to fear them.