Back to morals...
The golden rule might seem obvious, but why follow it?
Why should I care about others or making society better - why not be out for me?
Obviously to live and function in a society I need to fit in, but why not do just enough to fit in, but screw everyone else and live the best way for just me.
And yes there are people like that. Heck we are all like that to some degree. We put ourselves first, family and close friends next, neighbours and other friends etc. We don’t treat total strangers the same way we would our family.
To survive, reproduce and continue as a species we need to balance selfishness and your survival with cooperation and the groups survival.
The golden rule is a great starting point for how to function as a collective.
It doesn’t say “put the collective first”, that is too big of an ask. It says “don’t be any more selfish than you would expect of others”
Game theory shows that is a cooperative group where there is a cost to individual to help others, that it is best if everyone helps. The cost is outweighed by the reward of the group.
However, any individual who skips their part and still gets the group benefit is ahead! Reward for no cost.
If everyone (or even a majority) do this then the system is worse and breaks down.
There should be a balance between selfish and cooperative.
In reality it’s not black and white, it’s a scale. Some people are very selfish, some are very cooperative.
Pyscopaths tend to be at the selfish end, martyrs at the other end.
As a group we have worked out we need to adjust the balance, reward and punish to encourage the system towards cooperation. Some of this is internal, morals and conscience. Others are external, laws, justice, heroes.
It’s not surprising that religion has played a role in this, giving us morals and a reward/punishment in an afterlife.
But religion is working with something that was already there. You could say that evolved or was given by god.
But it’s clear that we have morals and the ability to work together already wired into us. Yes even psychopaths.
You don’t need to be religious for this to work. You certainly don’t need to be of any specific religion!