Looking at myself and my life, I truly believe that I am honest, moral, and trustworthy. And I don't really know of anyone who maintains to the contrary.

But developmentally, the reason I am that way is because when, at 14 years of age, I realized that I was what was seen as that "terrible, reprehensible" thing, an atheist, I decided there were two things I had to do:

1. Keep my head down. (This, to avoid losing the respect of many others I would run into along the way.) AND
2. Take personal responsibility for making my life honest, moral, and trustworthy. (This, to avoid losing the the respect of yours truly.)

    Dave Oesterreich