Morality is the Glue that Holds Society Together

If you desire X, and Y achieves X, then you should do Y. For utilitarians, X would be relieving suffering/increasing happiness in reference to the relevant parties, and Y would be things that achieve those goals. The debate of "is and ought" is why is X decreasing suffering and not something else, such as increasing suffering or following holy texts? Why do we not ought to decrease happiness and increase suffering? This is what Harris was referring to when he said that this is what it means to have a field of expertise and not considering certain views. In a sense, we are defining increasing happiness/decreasing pain as the goal of morality because that is our goal as individuals (which is where the philosophers cry foul "as you cannot get an ought from an is" and why science doesn't really resolve the meta-ethical issue in any meaningful sense).

So, why ought we decrease suffering/increase happiness? Well, I just found it to be more satisfactory than anything else and inline with what actions people tend to call moral/immoral; however, X is probably better defined as being a particular group, where the criteria we would use for determining how preferable a group is, is the level of well-being (based on the individual's preferences) of the group (and I would contend that most people, since people are relatively similar, our notion of well-being would be relatively similar | For example, if you want to live in a society with low X, X being murder, theft, etc., you should not commit X and condemn those who do), so it would lead to similar conclusions, and where differences occur, trade offs occur.

If you disagree with X, by all means, make it decreasing happiness and increasing suffering. However, once this individual is detrimental to the group, either the group will disband (a negative outcome for those in the group), or the more likely case, the group has reason to condemn the individual and if need be, ultimately isolate the individual from the group to maintain the cohesiveness of the group. In society, this would be incarceration (on less severe offenses, loss of relationships, economic opportunities, etc.); in the animal kingdom, this would just be letting the individual left alone to fend for itself, making itself a prime target of predation and reprimands for smaller offenses. These social tools allow the group to influence the individual's desires to conform with the group's, to make it in the individual's self-interest to conform with X enabling the success of the group. In this sense, morality is the glue that holds society (the group) together.

It is generally accepted that certain standards of behavior are needed to ensure a stable productive group (society), here is a common purpose; while it may not the only purpose, it is a purpose nonetheless. Immoral actions are a tax on the group. Moral actions benefit the group. Having a stable productive society raises the well-being of everyone involved, and as such, is a worthy desire for each of its members.