So consider other social animals, eg rats, apes, wolves. All clearly exhibit pro-social behaviours (“nice”). They are not being “nice” because of believe in God. Their “should” comes from inherited genetic tendencies—an evolution adaptation because cooperators produced more breeding offspring. Do you think those genes are missing in humans—or has self-awareness allowed us to make some calculus on not being “nice”?
I would say that you would be “nice” even if you never heard of God, in part because that it is the ways are humans are wired—it feels right, and partly because societies that work as iterated prisoner dilemma need to sanction free-loaders. If you are not nice, you tend get excluded from societies benefits (including breeding) by rest of society.
So consider other social animals, eg rats, apes, wolves. All clearly exhibit pro-social behaviours (“nice”). They are not being “nice” because of believe in God. Their “should” comes from inherited genetic tendencies—an evolution adaptation because cooperators produced more breeding offspring. Do you think those genes are missing in humans—or has self-awareness allowed us to make some calculus on not being “nice”?
I would say that you would be “nice” even if you never heard of God, in part because that it is the ways are humans are wired—it feels right, and partly because societies that work as iterated prisoner dilemma need to sanction free-loaders. If you are not nice, you tend get excluded from societies benefits (including breeding) by rest of society.