some more notes that are really on The Bonobo and the Atheist

DeWaal says that whether God exists or not is not a very interesting question.  What's more interesting is to ask what purpose or role does God serve in human existence? And is that role necessary? replacable? DeWaal is asking whether God places a necessary role in morality, and if so, what role?

Science, DeWaal believes, does not and should not be our moral compass. That is not it's job and, in fact, it's dangerous to use it that way (eugenics). More knowledge is not necessarily equated with more morality (is more reading?). 

God and other moral systems seem to stem from a belief that humans don't know how to behave so we need to teach them (although, you can argue that some moral systems just seek to codify how humans do behave as opposed to prescribe how they should).