Incorrect

"'Without religion, how would you stop yourself from raping and killing all you want?' I already do all the raping and killing I want. That number is ZERO because I don't want to rape or kill!" - Penn Gillette.

I also disagree. All you need is to say "I don't want/like that" and to understand that something could be lost or suffered to yourself or others, given a particular scenario. That can then be used to create a system of morality where the majority are in agreement with each aspect.

Oh and empathy. That's pretty critical!

I'd say that spirituality and religion is then formed off the back of and alongside general or universal moral beliefs and that many aspects cannot exist without morals in the first place.

People who are only moral because they fear going to hell scare the piss out of me.

I would argue that morality came before religion or spirituality, and therefore does not require either of them to exist.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morality

Here you go. Or if you prefer more specific:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_morality

Have a pleasant read.

I have neither spirituality nor religion and I consider myself a rather moral person. Neither of those did anything for me and I do not look at any religiosity I may have been taught as a child as a reason for my morals. Live and let live works pretty well for me. Always has and I’m almost 60. So no, I don’t agree with your point.

I'd say morality came first and people invented religion to justify the moral frameworks they already had. Cultures invented gods and ascribed their culture's shared moral views to their gods

Even animals have some kind of morality

I'm not sure if I understand the statement properly, but I appreciate the challenge here. Why precursor?

Ethical frameworks exist that don't rely on religion or spirituality. Utilitarianism, kantism, etc..

What do you even mean by "precursor"?

Define "morality".

Morality is inherent in mankind, even if many folks have the will to defy it or lack it altogether.

Religion emerged as a product of humanity’s profound drive for survival. The concept of death as a finite existence is inherently unacceptable to the brain’s survival mechanisms. Consequently, we developed religion and spirituality as coping mechanisms to address this existential dilemma.

Either your argument is that morality is somehow "god given" through religion, in which case I have to ask, which god? Which religion? There's a lot of those around or no longer around, with different nuances of morality, contradicting that idea.

Or each civilization developed religion and incorporated their respectove ideas about morality, but then morality necessarily precedes religiosity.

Either way, doesn't make sense.

Besides, the idea that a fear of god is necessary to make people "moral" is ridiculous. If you would commit immoral atrocities if you didn't believe in god, then I'm sorry, that makes you a bad person; but don't project that unto other people.

Empathy is sufficient for morality, while god, arguably, is an amoral monster.

Cheers, a moral atheist

I get where you're coming from. I used to think the same thing. I don't anymore and I would urge you to look more into subjective vs objective morality. Alex O'Connor has some really good thoughts on the matter.