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Hey, Steve -- you ain't alone.
Try swapping 'ethics' for 'morals' and do an internet search on developments in the scientific study of the hard wiring and software development of our own human and our fellow-animals' behaviour. It's fascinating. Illuminating. It flips the switch.
Some of the more popularly described work is from that mind-changing US philospher, Daniel Dennett (I used to wish he was my big brother -- now I think he probably is); Sam Harris and Chris Hitchens are terrific horse sense commentators on the subject; Richard Dawkins is only one evolutionary biologist trying to explain it in understandable language. There's even a recent and ongoing 'Morality Project' to further research. You can join in.
There's a lifetime's food for thought already freely available on the net, Steve. And the research and discussion is excitingly ongoing.
If you don't already do so, I'd strongly suggest you check out the bloody wonderful TED collection of video lectures and discussions (constantly updated) on this very subject.
Ethics/morality will never again be a simple and unsatisfying question of what's simply perceived as 'right' and what's perceived as 'wrong'. And 'Big R' has long since been ruled out of the equation as providing superfluous and unreliable data.
Good luck, ol' chum. Do let me know how you go on. Neil
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