http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/morals-without-god/
Morals Without God?
By Frans De Waal
More so than the other articles I read on this website, Waal seems to find common ground with much of his audience. Judging by the comments on his article, people in general seem to accept his claims and highly respect his methods and opinions. Perhaps this is because his audience largely seems to be well-educated atheists who are bothered by religion and love to hear an intelligent scientist such as Waal present a logical argument against it based on his findings.
None of the audience, even the small religious part of it, seems to be able to argue much with Waal's findings since they are based mostly on results of experiments he, an expert, has personally performed and observed. His credibility is built up so high in this area of study that the most of the audience has no choice but to believe him and the extrapolations he makes. Furthermore, his argument is convenient for many people in the world today who consider themselves intellectual and don't want to accept the responsibilty of answering to a higher being.