Cause and Effect

"See, all our people are businessmen. Their loyalty's based on that. One thing I learned from Pop was to try to think as people around you think. And on that basis, anything's possible." Micheal Corleone explains to Tom Hagen in Godfather 2. Expect the worst in people and anything they do better than that is only going to be good. :)

My cousin's post on religion says this:

"Man from his selfish and basic needs graduated to sharing and helping his fellow beings. He became tolerant, respected and wise."

My take is that Man became helpful and engaged in resource sharing because it was a necessity for survival. And this behaviour is not unique to humans alone. 

Predators engage in pack hunting because they know they can eat only if they do so. Bees are one of the most organized species. Ant behaviour is highly coordinated. They all do that because thats the only way they can survive.

But humans have one extra thing. They have something called self respect. It is an internal reward system which incents them to accomplish things even if they dont need to.

It is what makes my colleague, heir to a large estate, slog at nights. "Sense of accomplishment", he says.