It is possible through observation of what happens when cooperation occurs, and through transmission of these learned benefits through generations.
I suspect, before morality existed and the rules of nature prevailed, there was nothing to observe. Again, you are jumping ahead to explain how morality may have flourished after it was realized, you haven't explained how it originated. This is why your theory is failing, it has no basis in science, reality, or nature. Darwin's natural selection theory says animals retain hereditary attributes needed for the survival of the species, but there is no basis for retaining an emotional behavior which has no physical benefit, especially if it has not been practiced.
Look.... We know the dinosaurs became extinct because a big rock hit the earth and changed the climatic conditions on the planet. (or at least, this is the theory.) What you are essentially arguing is, the dinosaurs would have dug big holes to hide in or gone into caves and caverns which they had previously stocked with ample supplies, in order to survive. Obviously, they didn't do this, not because they wouldn't have been physically capable of performing these tasks, but because they didn't have any way of understanding what was going to happen. You simply can't argue that man adopted morality because he just knew it would work to benefit mankind, he had no way of knowing this. The dinosaurs were around for millions of years, it didn't ultimately save them from their demise because they were not capable of understanding what they needed to do to survive. Rationalized human thought was the root of morality, but the basis for humans ever attempting to practice morality, was faith, trust, and belief in the realization of it. It didn't happen as part of natural evolution, just as the dinosaurs didn't know the benefit of digging giant holes to hide in. It is naturally impossible for them to have known, just as it is naturally impossible for humans to have known the benefit of moral behavior.
What you have tried to do, is rationalize how mankind could have become moral without any spiritual basis or faith and trust in something. You have taken the backwards approach of... I feel
this way, so
that must be so. You've constructed a fictitious scenario to support your irrational view.
If you read my argument in total, not in snippets... you will see that I am not rambling on and on about God and what He bestowed on mankind, or how Morality is some miraculous gift given to us by our Creator. I have simply used your own "religion" of Science to refute your position and show how it is invalid. I understand you don't like this, I would hate for someone to show me up with my own faith, but that is precisely what has been done here. Your position defies Darwin, it defies nature, it defies Science, and it defies all common sense reasoning. The only way you can make it work logically, is to look at Morality AFTER the fact! AFTER man had practiced Morality, THEN you can make an argument to rationalize your position. But even then, you can't show where morality doesn't require initial faith and trust, and you can't even uphold your own watered-down and vague definition of morality.
What I wonder is, why does an Atheist go to such extremes of trying to rationalize the irrational, to show he is moral? Why does this matter to you? I mean, we live, we die, and whatever we do here is really irrelevant, so why does Morality even matter to an Atheist? Why is it so fundamentally important to you, that you will deny Science, Darwin, Nature, Reality, whatever.... just to make some irrelevant point about your own personal sense of morality?
What I think is, you are not really as 'Atheist' as you proclaim yourself to be. I think you believe in God just as I do, except you resent and hate Him. Something happened in your life to prejudice your innocent conscious awareness from when you were born. I don't know exactly what that was, abuse as a child, neglect, or traumatic events, are often the culprit. For whatever reason, you have chosen to abandon God, and wage a personal vendetta against Him, because you are hurt and hurting. This sometimes involves posting your own justifications for your beliefs in a manner which you think you can gain support from others with, thus reassuring you of your lack of faith and trust in God. This is why it is so important to you to post such threads, it helps you to cope with what you have chosen to do, and know is wrong.
