Psychology, group dynamics, evolution of morality, in-group out-group behavior, etc. "You can just feel God moving" is a statement that ends discussion of what is really going on.

Oh. No no. I don't want to undermine the geniality of this conversation, but let's be clear, that's what I intended to communicate in my post-not that this was a good response or an equivalent morality, but that it was a cop-out that flew in the face of observable evidence and sought to end discussion because the speaker couldn't bear the face the debilitating logical contradictions in their own epistemology. The psychological "explanations" are neither the result of controlled studies, nor in the least bit convincing.

In my first example, the doctor helping the alcoholic does harm, incredible harm, not only to our entire species, but directly to the doctor's offspring, because it increases their competition from a quarter that would have posed no threat, intellectually, economically, or sexually, after the predecessor of their competition had already lost in competition with the previous generation. To the extent that empathy prompts you to engage in this kind of harmful behavior (and I'm not sure why it would; I certainly don't feel anything of this nature), logic would suggest stamping it out, the same way that a baby is born believing it should crap wherever it likes, and only later learns to consistently use modern plumbing when it needs to go to the bathroom, contrary to its natural inclination.