yessir, that´s the crux of the matter...do we realize we are connected to something beyond ourselves (as in a Creator, or whatever it is that your soul responds to, whether you can pin a label on it or not); or do we feel that we are adrift in the universe left to our own devices?
I´m not even getting into Good and Evil here...
I´m saying that some believe we are not just a solitary object, we have connections.

It´s in exploring what those connections may be that we get into realms of godtalk, spirit, higher principles, afterlife, morals, and spiritual responsibilities...

So unless you start with the basics, and build up, step by step, you won´t know why you believe what you believe...examine first if you believe the first premise -- are we connected or are we isolated?

If isolated, then does it really matter what you pick to live by? Expediency and pragmatism is a logical outcome; anything beyond that, and you´ll be leaning towards the other view that there is connectivity...

If connected, then you must examine the responsibilities that come with being connected; because connectivity by nature should be reciprical...problems arise (like we see all around us now) when they are not.

So you see, already it becomes more tangled than simply seeing the forest for the trees...the implications of each thing you believe leads you to the next thing...
Until it builds into a cosmology...

It would be most excellent if we could just stick to basics only...like you say...
But the ramifications of one thing being itself and not something else, always leads to choices of this thing incorporated and that thing discarded...
Life is too complicated to narrow things down to one simplistic explination...each explanation has further fractal twists upon each element of its composition.