With Easter celebrations still fresh, many Christians are probably being reminded about the importance of the virtues of selflessness and compassion that Jesus taught before selflessly dying on the cross for our sins. This lesson is a good thing; however, this shouldn’t be the only call to action.

Using religion to help you become a better person is not a problem, but it is when it is the only basis for your morality that it becomes a potential issue. Instead, you should feel the need to do what’s right simply because it is the right thing to do. 

Saying that your religious values are what drive you to be a good person only states that you are willing to follow a group that will maintain the status quo of society in the same breath as fighting for the very souls that it has ostracized.

Christianity alone has helped build hospitals and schools, given food and homes to the needy and helped stand up for the voiceless; however, it has also oppressed the indigenous populations of the Americas, justified actual “holy wars” and downplayed both women and queer people throughout history as they were told to either “submit to their husbands” or “pray the gay away.”

Again, religion can be a good thing, but it is not what makes a good person truly good.
If I am only doing something good solely to get afterlife points, am I being a good person? No, I’m a car salesman advertising my soul.

Instead, you personally need to feel the drive to do what is right. 

It is selflessness and compassion that truly separate right from wrong, even if that action comes without reward.

Sure, no one may see your actions, but at the end of the day you put more good into the world than there was at the beginning of it and if you follow the teachings of a man who died for others solely to save them from eternal fire without any gratification, shouldn’t that be enough?

Of course, there is always the possibility that there might not be a point to any of this. 

We are a blue bubble in an ocean of stars, planets and galaxies all flowing together in endless space, making our world look like one of many specs of dust layered thickly on an old antique desk, but if nothing matters, then everything matters equally.

It is the massive scope of our universe that makes it so amazing.

Every child has a song to sing, every bird chirps out a sweet symphony and everyone has a chance to make a difference.

The world is beautiful and full of beautiful people, each filled with their own lives, dreams and passions.

When you recognize the importance of your fellow human beings, caring for them comes easily, compassion comes like second nature and love becomes your main driving force.

Why wouldn’t you help them?

You shouldn’t feel like you have to do good because Christ told you to; you should do good simply because it is the right thing to do.