Morality does not need God to exist

My opponent insists that because the moral rules that we abide by today were developed by people who believed in God, that it is impossible for morality to exist in the absence of God. This is absolutely ridiculous; it is akin to saying that if Sir Isaac Newton had never lived and developed the general laws of motion, that it would be impossible for somebody else to develop the same equations. Just because the belief in God has been a popular belief in many cultures throughout history, does not prove anything about the necessity of God to have morality. The fact that all cultures interpret God differently suggests that the *idea* of what God is, is mostly dependent on other cultural differences. The fact that atheists can be moral, which you have conceded to, proves that a belief in God is not necessary to be moral. If a belief in God is not necessary, than God would not be necessary. In fact, God is not even necessary in order for there to be a belief in God. Every single person on this planet can have their morality influenced by their belief in God, and the fact that God may still not exist would negate any impact that God had on human morality. However, do not vote based on this minor technicality (you can if you want to ;-) ) "if something is not developed how can it exist? it cannot!" Would it be possible for a car to exist in the 1700s considering it had not yet been developed? If we consider the phenomena of a parallel universe, there's no reason to doubt that somebody might have built a car then, or even earlier. Perhaps there is a parallel universe where belief in God never existed, there is no reason to doubt that man would still act morally and form societies. "People are [innately selfish], and [sure] nobody likes pain, but when one sees that he can [gain] something from war, he will not be [deterred] by fear of getting hurt" (spell check, seriously) Yes, people are innately selfish, there is no denying that people will always look out for their own best interest. What I am arguing, is that morality has developed because it is in the best interests of individuals to act morally. If there was no morality, there would most certainly be anarchy and little cooperation because there would be no trust. The success of the human race is partly due to our morality and thus our ability to cooperate (and communicate) so that we may work together, form societies, and ultimately improve our standard of living. These things would not be possible without morality, we would still be cavemen otherwise. To argue that man would still be living primitively if it were not for the "concept of God" is foolish, to put it bluntly. You argue that morals would never have developed without a belief in God, or more importantly it seems, the afterlife. If there is no belief in some sort of judgment after death, you think that nobody would act morally. I do not believe this to be so, I think that most people realize it is better to live a predominantly moral life strictly for the benefit it offers you while you are *alive*. Please review your arguments before you submit them, and use the check your spelling function if you have to (which you do). Thanks for the debate.