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There are many reasons and some are very bad reasons.
I don’t believe in God. I don’t believe in heaven or hell. I don’t believe that people who say they have “a personal relationship with Jesus” have any such thing. I believe that most of them are sincere, but the wealthiest and most influential of them are self-aware charlatans.
But I do believe in trying to be good. I don’t think one should do this for selfish reasons — like, for example, to get into heaven. Or even to simply obey God. I think those reasons are terrible reasons even if I’m wrong and there IS a God.
Why? Because being good for selfish reasons isn’t really being good. It’s either selfishness or fear. Neither of those qualities are particularly laudable human qualities. If a violent person decides NOT to kill someone because he fears the death penalty, that’s a good thing. But his decision isn’t anything worthy of praise. Neither is being good because Jesus tells you to…in your imagination.
So, Why Be Good?
My best guess is we get one life each. We are all born into the same world and, at a certain basic level, share the same human experience. We are born and we die. We have the same bodily functions and similar physical and emotional needs. We have an awareness of our mortality.
