If you've ever set about wondering why are people ever good, it's an interesting question. What exactly about the human brain and our emotional and physchological development would permit good traits to emerge. Obviously we are not all good, and many of us who are, aren't good all the time. One explanation that's been floated around for a long time is that man is good because he knows so being will please his maker. For the atheist this is a reacher unsatisfying explanation. It turns out, we may be good and have the capacity for so much good will based on the presence of special cells in our brains that actually allow for self-reflection and empathy called mirror cells.
Mark Matousek has written a great piece utilizing materials from his book,
Ethical Wisdom: What Makes Us Good, entitled (
"Why We Don't Need God to Be Good (and what religious folks don't want you to know") that explains both the mirror cells and what is known about them. He applies his wisdom and work to actual science available in the world and develops a compelling case not so much for the notion that God doesn't exist, but that we don't need the God-box to explain human behavior after all.