Can a person be a good person and not follow a religion?

This question was raised by Tyree in his comment on the last note. I am going to try my best to answer it and hope others will jump in to help to make the answer more complete.

I'd say Yes, a person can be a good person and not follow any religion, to a degree at least. Being a good person means to build worthwhile relationship with other human beings. We can't say we are good while living completely alone. It is in our interaction with others we show our goodness.

But it turns out that human beings are needful creatures. We are not self-sufficient. We have physical needs, we have emotional needs and we also have intellectual needs, etc. And because of this, no human relationship is completely free of self interests. In any human relationship, we need something from another part, another part needs something from us. So human relationship is a consuming relationship. Ultimately, at some point, every one betrays (means we fail to supply what others expect from us or we don't get what we need from others). Man is not perfect, this is human condition. Eventfully, we become either exhausted, or discouraged or disappointed and we can't sustain our relationship with others any more. So we cease to be a good person. This is really a pitiful condition. We can not renounce our craving for true relationship, nor can we achieve it because we are imperfect. Most of us endure this with greatest possible dignity, others creates for themselves substitutes to true relationship.

Is there any solution for this? Yes. This is where God comes into the picture. God by definition is self-sufficient and the Sustainer of everything in existence. The relationship with God is the only relationship that one side of the relationship has no self interest. As Baha’u’llah has said: “The one true God… hath wished nothing for Himself. The allegiance of mankind profiteth Him not, neither doth its perversity harm Him.” It is in our vertical relationship with God we receive energy so that we can sustain our horizontal relationship with other human beings and continue to be good without being exhausted.