The Pew Foundation estimates that the number of people in the United States who have no religious affiliation is now about 46 million. Starting around the millennial year a number of books were published on Atheism. These works generated good publicity for the non-theistic cause but gave rise to criticism that the movement lacked positive beliefs and morality. It became clear that there is a need to address the market for books with positive themes related to Atheism, and in particular, on Ethics. This book is an attempt to write an account of secular ethics as the subject stands at the beginning of the new millennium. The work does of course reflect the personal interests and biases of the author. One of the difficulties in addressing the task is that there is a considerable variability within the community of ?non-believers? as regards science, philosophy and ethics. Another problem is that many members of the community do not realize the potential benefits of systematic study and learning.

Moreover there is a shortage of people with pedagogic ability to build and guide incipient humanist congregations. It will be interesting to discover if this group will have the generalized interest to explore systems theory, biology, evolution, paleoanthropology, anthropology, psychology, sociology, history, politics and ethics. The author is motivated by the long term prospect of providing humanists with a way of finding optimum guides for living. We have already mentioned the wide scope of knowledge that is called for in writing this book and we must mention some other aspects of the approach taken here. Firstly there is the incompleteness of the subject. The best way to live at any one time depends on the way the world is at that time and we and others in turn alter the world through our actions. So neither we nor our world is ever finished. The author has borrowed the phrase ?the ethical project? from Philip Kitcher to describe the situation.

Another aspect of the subject is that it is very ancient. Thus we must realize that we must start our investigation at least at the beginning of biological evolution. Even the simplest of living things found ways of learning how to get along. There are certain constancies to be found in simple as well as in complex situations and living things have found increasingly sophisticated ways to recognize and remember those constancies. The theory of such systems shows up repeatedly throughout our text. Much evolution is quite gradual as Charles Darwin himself described in the ?Origin of Species? published in 1859. But sometimes life undergoes a revolution and a completely different way of doing things emerges. Thus multi-cellular creatures emerged and then came the sexual method of reproduction.

Darwin realized how important this was when he titled his other major work, published in 1871 as ?The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex?. There is a strong case to be made for Geoffrey Miller?s thesis in ?The Mating Mind? (2000), that it is the full understanding of sexual selection, which will give us the best understanding of the human condition. Miller gives us one of the best narratives that we have on how we became human. It presents a description of human nature and how that nature is key to understanding the human arts. The story starts with a reminder of Darwin?s thesis about sexual selection. Darwin points out that the amazing pea-cocks? tail probably came about because the peahens selected the healthiest specimens from among the male birds. Darwin found great numbers of other examples of males with ornamentation or unusual features and hypothesized that the phenomenon was driven by female sexual selection. Another one which is well-known is the antlers on male deer.

But is there a trait among humans which might be due to the same cause? Advocates of sexual selection remind us that the human brain underwent almost a tripling in volume over a two million year period starting about 3 million years ago. Now the brain itself would not have been visible to the hominids of that era, but the behavioral and other products of the brain would have been. This was the time when art, music and speech all appeared and when humans learned to make stone axes and to hunt effectively. These then were the attributes which the females favored for sexual selection. Miller details the history of Darwin?s theory including the negative comments by Wallace and others, and how these have been answered. The theory has re-gained ascendancy since the 1980?s with popular expositions such as Matt Ridley?s ?The Red Queen? (1993). It is now strongly favored by the proponents of evolutionary psychology who believe that the appearance of the arts of humanity can be explained by it. Language, poetry and narrative are all arts that were invented during the same creative era.

Science itself depends on the art of explaining facts with theories. Economics, finance and trade are built up from various arts. Philosophy, Ethics, Government and Law are arts that have evolved to serve human purposes. Now although Miller?s book is perhaps the most comprehensive treatment of the arts and their origins there have been hints of their workings from other authors at various times. One person who saw the picture was John Stuart Mill in his book ?Utilitarianism?, (1861) where he refers to the ?Great Objects of Human Life?. The examples of great objectives which Mill cites include Power, Fame and Money. The author?s contention is that Mill was indeed recognizing that people do choose such goals in life. After all, Happiness has been recognized as an objective of life at least since the time of Aristotle, and Virtue has a similarly ancient pedigree.

It is quite common for ordinary people to adopt such mottos as ?Healthy, Wealthy and Wise? as aims for Life. This is where the inspiration for this book?s title came from.