Reply #23: I agree with Machiavelli on this one. [View All]

[Igel]

Religion or no, it doesn't matter. Religion is just another form of peer pressure, a set of rules couched as a belief system. You can have the system be nicely thought out, have it include a deity or not, or even have it be more of a set than a system. Socialization is internalizing the set of rules decided on by your peers.

"Right thinking" people find a way of rationalizing their internalized values, atheist or not. Sociopaths play no such game with themselves. Some people engage in the game so much they impose far more rules on themselves than their peers would.
It's not what you do when people are watching--then you could suffer severe loss--it's what you do when you're by yourself. Enron.

OTOH, game research shows that people consistently get more when there's a consensus towards trust. But people might get more when they violate trust. Hence the tension: The safe thing, or the chance at a pot of gold.

But of course, if you're Ayn Rand, then 'evil' takes on a different meaning, and it's bowing to peer pressure that can be construed as evil. Then Machiavelli is wrong. But let's stick to something like the meaning of the term a naive listener will assume.

Note that Machiavelli didn't say that man *did* more evil than good. Whether there's a perfect balance, or humans do 90% good and 10% bad, or 60% bad and 40% good--all that's completely beside his point.