Why might an atheist be trustworthy?

One of the charges that's sometimes leveled at atheists and agnostics is that they cannot be trusted to do the right thing because ultimately they don't have any reason to fear consequences when they do wrong. If no one's watching, the thinking goes, people steal. For believers there is always Someone watching but for unbelievers, there isn't. Therefore unbelievers cannot be trusted to do the right thing. This is a serious claim, and deserves a serious answer.

To begin with, is religious belief sufficient for moral behavior? Are all believers virtuous? No. Visit any of our prisons, or watch any program about them, and you'll see plenty of religion there. There's no shortage of God-talk and God-work in prison. If Jesus is everywhere, he seems to make a special point of visiting every jail-house in the land. So belief is not sufficient for moral behavior.

But if it isn't sufficient, might it be necessary? Does only belief motivate people to do the right thing? A believer who does something because he believes God will punish or reward him is motivated by feelings of fear (of consequences) or greed (for reward.) Greed and fear are certainly feelings that drive behavior. But they are not the only ones. Think of a mother comforting a crying child when she could just as well have let him cry himself out. She's doing it out of love. Or think of a soldier staying up through the night on guard when he knows damn well sarge is fast asleep in his bunk. He's doing it out of feelings of duty. Love and duty are feelings that can drive people to do the right thing, quite apart from fear and greed.

The feelings of duty can be specific or general. They can motivate the soldier to do his duty to his unit or corps, but they can also apply to larger duties, including the duty to do what is right in a broader sense. And it is these feeling of duty that an atheist can feel just as keenly as any believer, and which may lead him to do what is right.

Will they necessarily do so? No. Some real scoundrels don't have these feelings of duty. And even for people who do have them, they sometimes aren't sufficient to overcome temptation. But then the fear and greed that are supposed to motivate a believer aren't always sufficient either. Both believers and unbelievers may do wrong. My point is simply this: fear and greed are not the only feelings that may motivate people to do what is right. A feeling of duty may do so also. An atheist may feel a duty to do what he believes is right just as keenly as the most pious believer. And that's why an atheist may be trustworthy.