Carrots, sticks ... and doing the right thing

I often think to myself that life is simple if we followed one rule--make sure we do the right thing.

That's it.  As simple as that.

Of course, doing the right thing is not really simple.  For one, how do I know that "x" is the right thing to do and not "y"?  It becomes a challenge.  A challenge that forces me to think about options "x" and "y" and conscientiously arrive at a decision.

And even if I have decided that "y" is the right thing to do, well, I still have to do it.

All these are hard work.

There are plenty of other easier routes that one can take.  Like grabbing something that does not belong to me.  The President even boasts about grabbing pussies!  In these times, doing the right thing has apparently become way too tough even for a good chunk of the religious people!

In this loud thinking about "do the right thing," I am, of course, channeling a thought from the Bhagavad Gita.  Many kids like me grew up with elders, teachers, and preachers making references to "Do your duty, but do not concern yourself with the results."  The dharma that the Hindu philosophers refer to.

Secular research also reaches the same conclusions.

Easier said than done, of course.  But, to me, life is not worth it if I don't at least ponder about the right thing to be done.

The awesome thing for an atheist is that there is no hell or god's fury to worry about if I chose not to do "y."  Yet, unlike those hypocritical white evangelicals, I--as an atheist--end up trying as much as possible to do the right thing.

It is worth quoting Steven Weinberg, again:

 Living without God isn’t easy. But its very difficulty offers one other consolation—that there is a certain honor, or perhaps just a grim satisfaction, in facing up to our condition without despair and without wishful thinking—with good humor, but without God.  

A wonderful satisfaction, not a grim satisfaction, that I thought and did the right thing.  And then for the chips to fall where they may.