Reward and punishment are the basic concepts on which today's major faiths are built. But they are spurious. Any farmer knows that a horse will move if there is a carrot dangling in front of it and a whip to threaten it. But the animal does not believe in the rightness of moving forward: he does so to get the treat and to avoid feeling pain. Religion offers the same carrot and stick and demeans us in the process. Do we honor God and Christ if we live virtuous lives solely because we fear hell, or because we are bribed with the carrot of heaven? By that logic, atheists, who presumably do good not out of hope for an eternal reward but because they feel it is right, are more virtuous than Christians.