First of all, I thought your answer was very thoughtful and well written.

In college, I took a world religions class and we discussed "yin and yang", or the balance of good and evil and how the world or universe, however you look at it, needs both to keep things level.

I can easily see how you could view being good as being selfish. Consider dogs and how they're taught to do certain things for treats to the point that eventually it's no longer to appease you, the owner, but to appease themselves.

Admittedly, I'm of the somewhat crazy mindset that if I be good, then "things" are good. It's not about God or leaving a world as unharmed as I can when my time is up, but it's almost like a self-fulfilled prophecy. I just want to stay in a pocket of time and be good and let good things happen if I can while occasionally making a difference.

I accept that bad things happen, but if I live small I can minimize and avoid the evil. And if I remove myself from religion, that's another vessel of evil I avoid to protect my soul, of which I am to keep "good"

In that same college class, we also learned of a group of people who believe(d) people were intentionally born evil or good by God and he purposefully decided their nature well before their lives began. (This has no bearing or association to any of my beliefs or what I've said, but I thought this was very interesting and I think about it semi-regularly)

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