What Motivates you to be Good?

[revealman]

i am spiritual, but spirituality is not necessary for a person to be moral or good.

my motivation to be good is rooted in my deep compassion with fellow humans who all have their struggles and hardships in life and this is what unites us all, the ability to put yourself in another mans shoes, regardless if you are a believer or nonbeliever, not your religion makes you a good man but your deeds "you will see them by their fruits"

i would rather be an atheist than behaving nicely only because i feel being punished or am afraid of hell..
if your motivation is reward or punishment you are not more than hypocrites..

true goodness comes from conscience and inner feeling, inner compass = hence the word compassion = godly compass which guides you and tells you if your actions are wrong or right by feelings

no, my motivation is that we all have similar problems, we all are born into this world, we dont know if we chose it or not, we all struggle and this unites us by our ability to empathise with one another and do unto ourselves as we wish to be treated.

if its true that the universe is atomic and we all are mere drops of counsiousness divided from the universal sea(god/oneness/unity) then compassion becomes automatically inborn because how can you wish to harm another if he is but a reflection of yourself..

IF YOU WISH TO BE FREE; FIRST LET OTHERS BE FREE .

i leave here a very motivating and heart opening speech of freedom

[Svipdag]

NEC SPE NEC METU = Neither hope (of reward) nor fear (of punishment). I try to do that which is right because it is that which is right. Therefore, I try to avoid harming others.

[de Burgh II]

I would say because it acts as a means for me to obtain my personal rewards/goals. If a person was a straight up curmudgeon in a work setting on a person's last nerve, then they'll just fire you. lol

[Brianna]

Who said I'm motivated to be good?

I believe in God. I think He gives us the free will to choose good or evil. I try to pick the former path. I fear God's disappointment more than His punishment if I fail. I also feel bad about letting down family and friends. However, I think my conscience is my main moral engine. It keeps me on the straight and narrow most of the time. When I stray from the right path, I experience profound regret. FE, I recently lost my stuff over some events that were beyond my control. I'm ashamed of my reactions to said events. I think it's my aforementioned conscience that steered me back onto the right path in a course correction.

[Brianna]

NEC SPE NEC METU = Neither hope (of reward) nor fear (of punishment). I try to do that which is right because it is that which is right. Therefore, I try to avoid harming others.

On second thought, I should have just quoted Svidpag's post. Well, I just did. You know what I mean, though.

[Gooding]

Quite right, Brianna. We all ultimately do answer to our consciences, don't we? I think of it this way ( my view of God, incidentally, is that He is synonymous with life, He is the interconnection of life and the environment, the stabilizing factor in a chaotic multiverse), if we seek to live in harmony with not only our fellow humans, but also with ourselves, we'll obey those laws that our consciences have put forward as essential for us to follow. Doing good for others is healthy for the entire community. Western individualism has it all wrong. We are all part of a community, an interconnected paradigm where we as individuals are at our best when we function as part of a greater whole, a larger team. When we do good to others just for the sake of doing good, we enhance our own lives as well as the lives of the ones we help. We reaffirm our own humanity. My motivation for doing good is to share in a positive contribution to Creation as a whole as I give a few dollars to someone down on his luck, or when I jumpstart a stranger's car. No doubt the contribution is infinitesimally small, but it's a contribution and it was useful.

[Proctor]

to get de cash money

[revealman]

Quite right, Brianna. We all ultimately do answer to our consciences, don't we? I think of it this way ( my view of God, incidentally, is that He is synonymous with life, He is the interconnection of life and the environment, the stabilizing factor in a chaotic multiverse), if we seek to live in harmony with not only our fellow humans, but also with ourselves, we'll obey those laws that our consciences have put forward as essential for us to follow. Doing good for others is healthy for the entire community. Western individualism has it all wrong. We are all part of a community, an interconnected paradigm where we as individuals are at our best when we function as part of a greater whole, a larger team. When we do good to others just for the sake of doing good, we enhance our own lives as well as the lives of the ones we help. We reaffirm our own humanity. My motivation for doing good is to share in a positive contribution to Creation as a whole as I give a few dollars to someone down on his luck, or when I jumpstart a stranger's car. No doubt the contribution is infinitesimally small, but it's a contribution and it was useful.

thats right! even if nature seems cruel and competitive at first, when one watches it long enough one finds our symbiosis is its ruler not competition, darwin had it wrong! the most cooperative wins, not the strongest..