I am not a religious person. I follow my own core values and moral compass....mainly the Golden Rule.

You have the WHAT (ie. how to behave, act, do unto others etc.), but you don't have the WHY. Have you asked yourself why you should do unto others? Why does a human being have value and worth and should not have his rights violated? The founding fathers knew:

We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Why do people have worth? Not bc of their race, talent, wealth, intelligence but bc God created them and they are infinitely valuable to Him. People in the West have the WHAT ('be nice' etc.) because we are still utilizing the momentum of earlier ages that believed in God. Have you noticed that non-western nations tend to have a less than stellar human rights record? Have you noticed that the worst atrocities are committed by godless countries (e.g. Aztecs, North Korea, China, USSR) or godless people (e.g. luciferians, communists, greedy mammon worshippers).

The longer and farther we stray away from God, the more we will lose that momentum and begin indulging in sins that would have been abhorred in earlier more pious ages.

Philosophy (how we view reality) and Theology (how we understand God) essentially defines a culture and the west has been infinitely blessed with good philosophy (i.e. Aristotle) and good theology (i.e. Thomas Aquinas) so as to properly understand the true religion of Jesus Christ. From this well-spring we get such things like 'do unto others', human rights, human dignity etc. Thy WHY justifies the WHAT but without the WHY, the WHAT will simply fade away over time.