>>If I can't do the right thing without God, or Jesus, or a church Elder looking over my shoulder, then I have no right calling myself a decent human being.
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>For me, accountability is important. The motivation should not be so I won't get caught - but - that is a helpful deterrant when I'm weak and find myself tempted to sin.

May I surprise you here? It's pretty much what I hold as a principle (applicable to myself only, with no intention of asking others to accept it) - and one of the things that keeps me at quite a distance from religion.

I'm accountable to my fellow humans. In anything I do, I try first to do no harm to another human, regardless of being watched or not, and to do some good if possible. I define good as what's good for humans in general, then my family, then me personally.

If I can't find the reasons to do good within myself, I'm a lesser human being, and I may need an external reason. Such a reason may be called religion, if you so wish.

I don't have a good personal definition of sin, except in terms of "what some particular religion may define as undesirable"; it's a religious term for me. However, anything that exercises violence or coercion (physical, financial, material or psychological) upon other human beings is bad.