:) Thank you, HeySeuss. I agree with basically all of that, and have much the same way of looking at things.

[quote=So Boerd]
What Atheism, by design, lacks is a counter to the ring of Gyges. The secular reason I have for resisting a turn away from religious to secular morality is exactly that. I can never have a ring of Gyges; God is always watching. Indubitably many people won't become heinous when given total anonymity in real life, a religious motivation is stronger than a secular motivation when it comes to the ability to do evil and no one would know.
[/quote]

Which is why we (meaning all people, secular, religious or otherwise) must always be improving ourselves, and why we must embrace [i]empathy[/i]. A truly empathic and rational person needs no threat of punishment to avoid evil; she/he must only be able to see the suffering that her/his evil would cause others.

:sun This is why the idea of a Bodhisattva is so interesting, I think. A person who has achieved enlightenment, has achieved the means to end their own suffering... But chooses instead to remain here among the unenlightened, guiding them away from suffering and towards enlightenment themselves. The ultimate empathy.