You aren't going to get a bunch of links or any brilliant ideas here, but I wanted to have a frank discussion about religion and altruism. Who is the better man, the one who is good because he seeks reward in the afterlife, or the one who simply thinks it is the right way to be?
I once spoke with a very pious deacon who told me that if you do good works, God would do good works for you. I challenged him by asking whether those good works were some kind of barter with God. We don't speak much anymore.
It seems that many churches in the US teach the gospel of "give and you shall receive". Well, I have read the Gospels, and that is not at all what they say. You should give until it hurts and expect nothing in return was the message I took from them. I should note, as a selfish bastard, that is not a message I am fond of.
So what is the real message? I'm going to give a layman's opinion here, but I think they teach that you are supposed to give for but one reward. That reward is the warmth in your heart when you buy a hungry man a meal, or as I did today, not bragging, gave my bus pass to a man with bad knees. Giving is not about receiving. This isn't Christmas. The only recompense you should expect is the feeling that you have done something good for another human being.
Why would you do something selfless for this small reward? Because that small reward can save you, not in the biblical sense, but it can make your troubles seem like minor speedbumps, your trials but minor toils.
What I am telling you is that good works are done for their own sake. Which is why when an autistic gentlemen who is putting enormous effort into making conversation tries to converse with you on public transportation, and you are busy listening to your Ipod, you may just want to lend him an ear and be kind in your replies. Even if there were a God he wouldn't punish you for ignoring him, but you will feel better for being the only person on that train for giving him the time of day.
God (not the deity) is in all of us, and we can all shed light on another's day, should we choose to do so.