Works Without Faith

You've heard James say, "Faith without works is dead." Fair enough.
But is the opposite also true?
That's a question I've been kicking around for months. It seems straightforward enough- Hebrews 11:6 says,

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him."

That's saying faith is good. Okay, I get that. But say an atheist who's not "earnestly seeking Him" decides that helping the poor is the right thing to do. Is she any better off in God's eyes than if she did nothing for the poor? Or if a Hindu refrains from stabbing his neighbor because it seems cruel, will that reduce his suffering when he enters hell? Both of these people stand condemned, as John 3:18 clearly states:

"Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."

So you need to believe. And James says faith without works is dead, so works are good. But without faith you can't please God, even with works (which are good). I understand all that. But the wrinkle comes when I try to see my political and social views (which are inexorably linked to my religious views) from the perspective of a non-Christian. Why would I want someone to not cheat on their taxes? They might reason, "If I'm going to hell anyway, I might as well enjoy today!"

Another example would be, "Why not kill the guy who slept with my girlfriend? What's gunna happen, is God gunna send me to hell twice??"

Now, I know there are literally TONS (ok, not literally, that wouldn't make any sense. But figuratively...) TONS of societal reasons to help the poor, not stab your neighbor, not cheat on your taxes, and not kill the lowlife who slept with your girl. Lots of those reasons are good reasons. But they're all good horizontally, none vertically. I used to think that the worse our culture became morally, the easier it would be to lead people to Jesus, because "The light shines in the darkness", and the darker the darkness, the brighter the light shines. I figured the contrast would show ever more clearly how purity and holiness are more appealing than depravity. But sometimes it seems like as things get more jaded, our culture is first shocked, then less so, then becomes accustomed to it until something worse comes along and the process repeats itself. A downward moral spiral, you might say.

Wow, after re-reading that it sounds pretty depressing. And it kinda is. But after all that, I wonder "What if our society's morals improved to the point that so many people had helped the poor that poor people were hard to find? And what if the virtues of fairness, non-violence and fidelity so pervade our culture that no one ever cheats on their taxes, stabs their neighbor, or sleeps around/kills scumbags? Would that society be more receptive to the gospel? I'm sort of thinking the answer is no, and dang, now even THAT society sounds a bit depressing!

So back to my question. Without faith it's impossible to please God, but would good works, which lead to a better civilization and maybe better people, be completely worthless in God's eyes if those works were not born of faith? I keep coming back to a "yes" at this point. There's only one way to the Father, and it's a narrow way. The good news is that there's grace available to all who ask!