While it doesn't require an afterlife rationalization to be a good person, it does work, and has worked for a very long time.
Every religion with the probable exception of the Church of Satan -- finally, a congregation where the sociopathic can feel right at home!* -- is full of instructions on how to be nice to people, and statements of how it finds ethical behavior holy.
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Nope, mine are tested in the forge of logic. Religion can never say that.
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Actually, it can, and without speaking nonsense. Consider for one the Anglican tradition. They speak metaphorically of a three-legged stool, the three legs being Scripture, tradition, and reason -- or logic. Lose any of these and the stool lets you down pretty hard. Religion does not require rejection of nor departure from logical, reasonable thought. That some unreasonable people get a chance to take the bit in their teeth is unfortunate -- but we don't have to go along on their ride, either.
Ethics get tested in the forge of experience. Moral behavior is survival behavior, and is often very closely reasoned survival behavior -- again, tested by experience. Looking at the biblical story of Onan from that point of view, you can see the case that repealed that tribal law -- you need some other way to look after a widow if the decedent's brother simply cannot get along with her. That was an experiential test that caused a shift of the paradigm.
*The stuff the CoS writes in their various newsletters will creep you right out. Honest, it will.