Is religion necessary for good behavior?
In our research, we have found that priming thoughts of God increased generosity; but we also found that priming secular thoughts, such as “police” and “judge”, also increased generosity and to the same extent as the religious prime. Thus, religion can contribute to good behavior, but is not necessary for the latter. There is considerable evidence from the behavioral sciences that there are multiple sources of prosocial behavior; religion is only one such source, and its influence is limited to specific conditions (see below). There is a large body of evidence showing that social surveillance mechanisms, or social emotions such as empathy, or both, can motivate people to behave better; religion is not necessary for either of these.
