You CAN be good without god...who knew?

This article from Science Daily explains an interesting new theory about why religion and morality are linked.  See, there had previously been two main theories about the origin of religion:
1) Religion evolved as a way to solve the problem of cooperation among unrelated individuals.
2) Religion evolved as a by-product of pre-existing cognitive capacities.  For example, it is much better for the survival of young if they have a tendency to believe what the elders tell them about what is edible/dangerous etc.
This article talks about two psychologists who found (citing many studies in moral philosophy) that people show no difference in moral judgements for unfamiliar dilemmas, despite differences in, or even lack of, religion.  This suggests that intuitive judgements of right and wrong are independent of specific religious obligations.
"This supports the theory that religion did not originally emerge as a biological adaptation for cooperation, but evolved as a separate by-product of pre-existing cognitive functions that evolved from non-religious functions," says Dr. Pyysiainen (one of the authors of the article). "However, although it appears as if cooperation is made possible by mental mechanisms that are not specific to religion, religion can play a role in facilitating and stabilizing cooperation between groups."
This is interesting because of some of the common views on the connection between religion and morality.  Some people view morality as impossible without religion, others see religion as a way of expressing moral intuitions, some see religion as something that impedes moral progress, and still others think religion and morality are in no way linked.  But it still remains that in most cultures (including this one), religious beliefs and concepts have become the standard way of articulating moral ideas.  Since the language of morality and the language of religion are so intertwined, an attack (perceived or real) on religion is seen as an attack on morality.
I think this is where the trouble comes in for people like my mom.  She's believed all her life that religion is good, moral, and right.  Therefore, people without religion are bad, immoral, and wrong.  Then I come out to her as an atheist, and suddenly she has to reconcile her preconceived notions of what an atheist is with her knowledge of who I am.  I'm just glad that my mother chose to go with her knowledge of me as a good, moral person instead of forcing me into the role of evil immoral atheist.