If the only thing that stops you from doing terrible things is a threat of punishment or promise of reward, you are already a terrible person.

All men seek to promote their own happiness, there is such a thing as selflessness, since fulfillment is achieved through what we call "selfless acts" it's technically a self-serving act. So no human is selfless. If I didn't have eternal life waiting for me, I'd knife the next person I see, and the next and the next. There is simply no purpose to life, no reason for "good" of any kind if their is no lasting effect. If Atheism's view that there is no God, and therefore that no magic rejuvenation/consummation of all things will occur, then scientifically the universe will eventually stop/implode. So everyone is already dead, every action is futile, and humanity has no purpose, even in "good" acts. I'm not a sick person, just a person who knows what they would be without God. Dead. EDIT: I'm not going to knife anybody, sheesh, for self proclaimed scientists you really have a bad level of reading comprehension, it's an example of what could be done if there are no lasting consequences.