http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_ariely_on_our_buggy_moral_code.html

In this Dan goes through reasons why we might cheat and what influences how much we cheat.

2 things struck me about it.

1) The 10 Commantments had the same effect as a fictitious Honour code. Which suggests that we will honour an external moral guideline, but it does not need to be divine to be valued.

2) The fudge factor he spoke of was the amound of dissonance beween what you do and how much you see yourself as a fair person. This made me think of how dangerous a belief in a Religion can be, because it seems to me that a if your actions are in the name of a religion, your dissonance is negated (or fudge factor is increased) because you can overlook the societal immorality of your actions because you have decided that what you are doing is for the greater good of your religious community. With this dissonance dissolver, you picket funerals of gay people, you can shoot doctors who perform abortions or you can fly planes into skyscrapers.

Me.