""Religion provided the initial moral building block as a code of ethics...."
Fair dinkum surely commonsense provided the basis for the right thought right action ions before someone decided to pen 10 commandments & you can be rest assured the 10 commandments were not written by the poorest man in town.
Thou shalt not steal & if you do & get caught religion says 'cut off his hand' -great initial moral building blocks.
Montessori Schools -the way to go, freedom of expression & all that jazz.