First up, I have to ask exactly what you mean by ' quality life '. Whose standards of quality do you use to judge?

Secondly, I don't really have as much free time as I would like. What free time I have to invest in recreation, like now, is usually at the expense of sleep. Every great once in a while I have time to waste at work, maybe 5 minutes, but then it is back to the grind stone.

I spend my money pretty much like everyone else does. The $20 I don't drop into a donation box at church really doesn't amount to much in the place I live.

And for the record, I do meditate. It has to do with centering, calming, and relaxation, not religion.

 My motivation is the knowledge that the life we have now is all we get. Compassion comes from empathy, which religion holds no monopoly on. As an atheist, I no longer fear an invisible presence watching my every move, leaving me free to develop real morality as opposed to the coercion that many theists pretend is morality. I am finally liberated to explore and develop my human nature rather than deny it as most religion does.

As for atheists only caring about their own success and about being right, let me explain something. I live in the Arctic circle in order to provide adequate health care to some of the most amazingly ignorant, illiterate, racist, cruel, Christians I have ever met. I do this because, despite their shortcomings, these natives have gotten the short end of the stick for several hundred years, and because virtually nobody else is willing to live in such a harsh environment to provide health care for them. Most of the doctors, nurses, and support staff that work here are temporary, some staying as little as 3 days. I have been here for one month shy of a year.

 I don't see the Red Cross up here, and I don't see a single one of the villages 10 churches offering to provide them with a damned thing except for a plate to drop their money in. If I were here for the money, I would be jumping at the senior administration position available to me. As it is, I know that I am more effective in middle management where I am doing hands on work than I would be in a lofty position that pays triple my current salary.

I am sorry, but it sounds to me like you are saying that Christians go out of their way to suck others into the fold. I know that you don't see it that way, but it really is how it reads ( ie; reach out, missionary work, make church fun, indoctrinate ). As an atheist, I see this as cult activity, akin to brainwashing. Even the so called humanitarian soup kitchens are all too often just an excuse to force someone into listening to a sermon. And what exactly is the greatness in missionary work? Some of the cultures that Christianity has destroyed, including the Inuit culture, had it's own religion prior to Christian intervention. The Christians brought them sexually transmitted disease, alcohol, polio, and smallpox. After disease decimated the population, Christians rounded up the native children, placed them in Christian orphanages, renamed them, forbade them to speak their native language, and forced Christianity upon them. After the damage was complete, the priests moved on, leaving a disenfranchised, cultureless population to fend for themselves. Some of these people have never recovered. Alcoholism and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome are prevalent here, a direct result of Christian intervention. This is a race that for several thousand years managed to live under the harshest conditions on the planet without any modern technology. Thanks to the destruction of their culture and history, several of them manage to succumb to hypothermia every year even though they have heat and Colombia coats.

So I am pleased to say that atheists do not engage in such activity. What some of us do do is try to educate people. We try to reverse the damage inflicted by the self righteous religious zealots and try to prevent their nonsense from spreading.

What makes you assume that atheists are not virtuous, honorable, and amazing? Better yet, what makes you assume that theists are? Can you honestly name any Christians that are virtuous, honorable, and amazing? Islamics? Baha'i? Wiccans?

Below is only a partial list of noteworthy atheists. I am sure that hundreds could be added, possibly even thousands. As for why there aren't more of us, it seems obvious. Atheists are a minority. Asking why there aren't more virtuous, honorable and amazing atheists is like asking why there aren't more virtuous, honorable and amazing people named Smedley Grince. There are Precious few of either.

Douglas Adams, noteworthy for his non fiction book on endangered species Last Chance to See.

Terry Sanderson, noteworthy for gay activism.

James Randi, noteworthy for the James Randi Educational Foundation.

Philip Paulson, noteworthy as the Presidential Medal of Freedom holding civil rights leader.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, noteworthy for her advocation of women's rights in Islamic countries.

William Moore, noteworthy for his lone protests against racial segregation.

Peter Kropotkin, noteworthy for his book, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, which refutes social Darwinism.

Richard Fenyman, notable for winning the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, notable as a Nobel laureate in Physics.

Paul Boyer, noteworthy for a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Paul Dirac, note worthy for a Nobel Prize in Physics.

Vitaly Ginzburg, noteworthy for a Nobel Prize in Physics and the Wolf Prize in Physics.

Francis Crick, noteworthy for his part in the discovery of DNA, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Susan Greenfield, noteworthy for her research of Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's.

Stephen Hawking, noteworthy for being Stephen Hawking.

Ernst Mayr, noteworthy as a historian of science, biologist, naturalist, author.

Michael Shermer, noteworthy for his work to advance skepticism and critical thinking.

Harold Kroto, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.

E.T. Hall, debunker of the Piltdown Man hoax and the Shroud of Turin.

Carl Sagan, noteworthy for his uncanny ability to make science sexy and understandable to the masses.

Richard Dawkins, noteworthy for his defining the Meme theory of replicating units of concept transmission, and due to his recently discovered ability to cause fundamentalists to spontaniously combust.



 

Hi Desdenova,

You said the $20 you don't drop in the offering basket wouldn't make a big difference.  That's my point.  Christians are commanded to give 10% + of their income every month.  That does make a difference to the church and to yourself.  The fact that you don't, won't or didn't give 10% of your money away shows that you have 10% more money for 'YOURSELF' in comparison to a Christian.

I understand non-religious people also 'meditate', but I meant the more sinister version of meditation which is designed to brain wash you.

You mentioned the fact that you are now free as an atheist to develop real morality and your human nature.  Which is good in and of itself.  In atheism your morality doesn't need to be based on the fantasy that there is a surveillance camera in the sky that will send you to an eternal detention center when you die for breaking its made up rules.  Also you can explore your sexuality or cage fighting skills without any guilt.  You can fully develop your human nature and morality.  Trying to be funny there.  But I am talking more about virtues.

I find what you are doing in Antarctica commendable.  Your account was well put and well written. 

You compare religion to cult activity and brainwashing.  You put the terms in a completely negative light, but there might be a positive side to cult activity and brainwashing.  They develop certain characteristics in people that are appealing to the masses.  I was swept off my feet by the fruits of christians brain washed life and cult activity. 

As to virtuous, honorable and amazing Christians, I say yes I know many.  Sure they might be enraptured by a fantasy, but they are too old and too incapable of realizing this fact.  Their illogical / fantastical beliefs are so profound and meaningful to them that they motivate them to live exceptional lives.  If they stopped believing they would loose out on their greatest experience.  They don't care to develop critical thinking skills, or to throw away their fantastical beliefs, because they know that their radical beliefs give them the context to live their exceptional lives.  Rationality, logic or facts are less important to how they feel.

The only slightly interesting non-christian religious person I could kind of think of would be Gandhi or the Dalai Llama.

As for the list of atheists you placed in the post, it kind of reinforces my current beliefs.

Here is what I have observed about a few of these people.

Dawkins is rude and condescending.

Christopher Hitchens is a rude alcoholic.

Michael Shermer is interesting, smart and professional.

Stephen Hawking is smart.

James Randi is an educator.

And many of the others appear to be academics or political activists.  None of them strike me as figures that have put much effort into dealing with people one on one.  They are professors, researchers, pundits, political activists.  They don't work with people one on one, the way priests, pastors, missionaries and evangelists do.  They are not focused on spreading their human love through their charisma and art from what I can tell.  They are not living exceptional human lives, but are merely smarter and more successful than others.  They don't strike me as sophisticated, refined, loving people of virtue, of honor, justice or of some amazingly courageous nature.  They are intellectuals who read books.  They haven't developed themselves to reach the essence of who people are.  Atheism doesn't encourage you to do that, so these sort of people don't attempt it.

Oh by the way, I just thought of some things I / the Bible consider virtues:

Love, gentleness, kindness, meakness, humbleness, compassion, encouragement, courtesy, respect, showing honor, being thankful, praying for your enemies, going the extra mile, tithing, sacrifice, practicing self control, sharing, serving orphans and widows, speaking without cursing or swearing, turning the other cheek so on and so forth.

Those are difficult to carry out and I don't see those practiced much by the list of people above.

Citation needed for Collins, Cpt.

And it's 'MARTIN' not 'Martian'.

http://www.amazon.com/Language-God-Scientist-Presents-Evidence/dp/0743286391

oops, can you fix that?

Yeah, but none of them ran soup kitchens, force fed their religion to unsuspecting natives, or reached out with love like priests, ministers, etc, so they don't count. They are also as lacking in love, honor, virtue, grace, refinement, culture, and respect as all the atheists I mentioned. Nope, not a one of them radiate the apparently visible glow of nuggety love and goodness  that our OP has called for. In using his standard of " They are only good if I say so. ", I've got to condemn them all as self serving, greedy, materialistic, uncompasionate, heartless nobodies.

Nice try. Thanks for playing.

Yes, of course. What makes you think you can't?

Atheists are just like everyone else. They just don't believe in one thing. God. Why do you assume that believing in 'God' automatically turns you into some sort of altruistic superhero?

God belief, in and of itself, does not inherently make you a better person or live a 'quality life'. Atheism, a lack of belief in 'God', does not inherently make you a worse person or live a lower 'quality life'.

Where are you getting the idea that it is otherwise? Seriously. Where did you get this idea? I propose that you likely got it from the common perception that atheists have no morals, are selfish and mean, etc. etc. etc. This is pure propaganda. It is similar to the vilification of Jews or Blacks by racists. This is another idea that was planted in your head by the culture around you, a culture -- I might add -- that is dominated by theists.

No, of course not.

What motivation does a theist have to develop virtues?

Also, define 'virtues'. Is it a virtue to blindly donate money to a church in the hopes that somehow that money will be put to good use? Or is it a virtue to see through the lies and propaganda to notice that the most religious neighbourhoods also tend to be the poorest, and it's always the preachers that are well-off while the poor go to church and donate what little money they have?

Personally, my motivation to develop what I consider 'virtues' is the realization that this is the only life I will ever have, and I would do well to live it to the best of my abilities. This is why I relentlessly educate myself, so that I can understand reality as clearly as possible. This I consider a virtue.

What motivation does a theist, especially a Christian, have for relentlessly educating themselves? Who cares, if all you have to do is 'believe in Jesus' in order to get the most awesome reward of heaven in the end? Why bother learning? What does it matter? Just live the lie in bliss! Screw the world and bliss out on Jesus! Doesn't sound very virtuous to me, and yet... we see Christians tend to be the most anti-intellectual of all Americans. They tend to be most ignorant, and *proud* of their ignorance.

Again, you are assuming that atheists do not reach out to the lonely, poor, and weak.

But aside from that, I will answer your question as if it applied to the rationalist atheists like myself and many others here on RRS.

Personally, I find that I am most able to put my skills to the best possible use if I spend my time working on *educating* people, on confronting dangerous dogma in public, and on developing a better secular philosophy which I am promoting here on RRS and also on YouTube. I could spend my time doing the more immediate acts of charity, such as collecting money door-to-door for some charity, or whatnot. But that is not my style. That is not what I'm good at. What I'm good at is the more intellectual side of things. What good is putting a band-aid on an open wound if the patient is going to die of infection? I'm the guy spending his time looking for the cure to the infection.

I spend my time developing systems. I'm a computer programmer by profession, and that's what I do best, designing systems. Systems of thought, systems of politics, systems of argumentation and discussion, systems of ecology and sustainability, etc. I'm a systems guy. My best effort comes from me spending time working on that aspect of things.

Society is severely fucked up. I don't know if you realize that, having recently come out of fantasy-land. But here in reality, we have serious problems that need to be solved, and our society is the *cause* of 99% of these problems. *Somebody* has to work on fixing society if 'reaching out to the lonely, poor, and weak' is going to have *any* meaning at all. What good is it if we're all singing "Cumbayah, My Lord" while 50% of the world's species go extinct and the planet turns into an oven? Humans could easily be one of those species that go extinct.

Again, you are assuming that theists have some special abilities that atheists don't have. What motivation does a theist have to live a rich and meaningful life? None, as far as I can see. The theist *forgoes* the search for meaning. They think they've found it in 'God'. But what is the meaning of God's life? The theist has no answer. The theist doesn't have any idea what the meaning of life is.

Define 'rich'. Is it rich to just bliss out while the world falls apart? Is it rich to be content and happy when serious work needs to be done?

The problem with fantasy is not that it makes you feel good. It's that it makes you feel good when in reality you should be dissatisfied with the way things are. It leads to complacency and apathy. "Who cares? Why bother? Jesus will save me anyway!"

I could easily take heroin or some other drug and be happy all day long. In fact, that's largely what religion does for people. It's a fix. "Just gimme a little bit more of that loooove. Ahhhh. Thank you Jesus! Here's my $20 and I'll be back next week for my next fix." Or maybe the person needs a fix every day, or every hour. It's a drug like any other. Our mind works by neurotransmitters, which are chemicals that affect the functioning of the brain. Release some endorphins, and the pain goes away and the bliss sets in. Release some serotonin and the confidence kicks in and you feel great! It's all drugs. Some beliefs, such as Christianity, trigger releases of certain kinds of neurotransmitters, and that's where you get the good feeling. But it's just a fix.

If you are in a shitty situation, it doesn't help anything if you feel all happy and complacent. You need to change things. Don't run from reality, face it with full knowledge.

Perhaps that is just your subjective judgment of them. Perhaps your judgment is based on your own personal biases, and you simply don't *see* the good in atheists. Perhaps you don't appreciate the same values that they appreciate.

There are times to be courteous, and there are times to be bold, in-your-face, and confrontational. Perhaps the atheists simply see the severe *damage* that silly irrational beliefs cause in this world, and they feel a need to *challenge* these beliefs publicly for the betterment of the entire world. What could be more compassionate than facing personal ostracism for the betterment of the world? The atheist is saying "I don't care if you reject me, the truth needs to be spoken."

What is it about belief in a non-human deity that unleashes one's 'human nature'? This seems completely bizarre to me.

Human nature is not all fuzzy and warm. That is fantasy. Reality can be cold and impersonal. Sometimes those who see reality need to wake up those who live in fantasy with a cold splash. There is nothing inhuman about that. In fact, it is a very human thing to do.

Again, you are assuming theists have some special quality that atheists don't have. Atheists have intuition, care, and love too. What makes you think they don't? Are you believing the theistic propaganda, again?

Let me explain this more clearly. You live in America (presumably), where the majority are theist, and it is often looked down upon to be an atheist. There are other countries, such as Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and more where the majority are atheist and it is often looked down upon to be a theist. These countries have lower crime rates, lower sexually transmitted disease rates, better social services, donate more per capita to third-world countries, and are generally nicer and have a higher 'quality of life' than America.

That is a fact. Can you face that fact, or will you run from it? Atheists in these countries are demonstrably more 'human' than theists in America. How do you explain that? Why do you suppose that is?

Why is it that wherever there is a promotion of ignorance and intolerance, there is some sort of dogma, usually religious, behind it? Why is it that the Catholic church preaches that condoms are evil to people in Africa, where AIDS is the number one killer? Do you think it is because these theistic Catholics are using their 'intuition to reach out to strangers with care and love'? Or could it be perhaps that they are deluded by their intuition, self-deceived into believing they are loving and caring, while really they are being genocidally stupid?

See, that's the thing about intuition. Actually, I'm a great fan of intuition. It is a wonderful, powerful thing. But it is not infallible, and unfortunately, most people who rely on intuition do believe that it is infallible. "God will tell me what to do!" just means "I trust my intuition without any doubts as to its fallibility." This leads to tremendous *real* evil that is *fantasized* to be good.

So, I personally develop my intuition. I find it very useful for understanding other people and for developing creative ideas. But I do not trust it with faith. I doubt it. I criticize my own intuitions. I constantly question my assumptions and motivations.

How many theists do that? How many theists doubt themselves on a continual basis, rather than just occasionally? How many constantly test their assumptions and motivations? You claim that atheists don't 'develop' themselves, and that leads to them living 'static' lives. I claim the opposite! For how can a theist truly 'develop' if they do not examine themselves carefully for their own flaws? You can only fix a problem when you are aware of it!

"Although they might be wrong." What revealing words. It really turns the whole paragraph on its head. They are highly motivated to do good things... although they might be wrong. Let's for a minute entertain the idea that they are wrong. What if they are wrong about their idea of 'what is good'? Then what you have is a group of people who are *highly motivated* to do things that are *not good*.

Can't you see the danger in that? Can't you see the consequences of that that we are currently facing? The people who are responsible for the economic meltdown were highly motivated to pursue greater and greater unregulated profits, which they were convinced was a good thing. But they were wrong, and we end up with an economic meltdown.

George W. Bush was highly motivated to invade Iraq to capture those WMDs that he *just knew* were there, but he was wrong, and we end up with a terrible and costly war, both in dollars and human lives.

Christians are highly motivated to deny homosexuals equal rights because they just know that God hates fags. But they are wrong, and we end up with pointless and damaging discrimination.

The list could go on. It doesn't matter how highly motivated you are if your motivations are are built on a broken foundation! The Scientologists are highly motivated too. In that group you will find people who are filled with vigour and vitality, who are seeking to save the world, who reach out to strangers, etc. etc. If that is what you are looking for, why don't you join the Scientologists? Oh, that's right. Because you know the Scientologists are wrong and that what they are doing is not actually helpful but harmful.

You will find many highly motivated atheists on this website, on Margaret Downey's website. On Richard Dawkins' website. On Pharyngula. In Humanist associations.

You will even find intense atheists in religious organizations. You will not know they are atheists, because they have to hide their non-belief due to fear of ostracism.

There are millions of atheists in the US. Approximately 10% of the population. You know dozens, if not hundreds. They may not be 'out'. You may think they are Christian. But that is merely because of the discrimination against atheists, that they don't feel comfortable expressing their non-belief in a culture dominated by self-righteous theists.

Go to Denmark or Sweden, or any other country where it isn't taboo to be an outspoken atheist, and you will see copious evidence of atheists living intense, full, meaningful, yadda yadda yadda lives.

Ha! That's a laugh. I guess it crucially depends on what you define as 'better'.

That's enough for now. To summarize: You are wrong on so many levels I could go on for hours and hours. Your judgments are largely based on your learned stereotype of 'atheists are terrible people, and you shouldn't ever want to be one or know one.'

 Does Science Take Away Wonder and Awe?

For New Atheists: Is This Really All There Is?

Free Will: Why we don't have it, and why that's a good thing.

What Does Sugar Have To Do With Murder?!

Well being an atheist no more makes you a wonderful person than being a christian bads you automatically a bad one. No sure what comparing good atheists versus good chrisitans really acheives anything.

Quite simply there is no reason for you to be alive however there any many many reasons to live. It can be kids (no thanks), partner, sport, nature, science, being deluded into believing in a middle eastern death cult (christianity, islam is shit of course but only chrisitianity puts death and torture at is very fundamental core).

I'm not against adults believing in any old crap they want to, what I am against is people whose  purpose in being alive is so deluded they threaten my existance in the only world and life we have.

Children of course are a different matter anyone that brainwashes kids into a life of eternal fear and hatred (ie is brought up as a fundi christian) is no better than a paedophile and in fact in some cases causes more damage

Well, yeah, basically. Some people also donate it to various charities.

I suppose this is somehow less productive in your mind that handing it over to the church so they can buy nice oak pews and extravagant priestwear?

...The same motivation as anyone else?

What, the threat of burning forever makes you 'more virtuous', somehow? Way to use that noggin'.

We are 'motivated' to act as social creatures that look after each other (to certain degrees) because we evolved as social creatures. Misery breeds misery, and many of us don't enjoy living miserable lives. Some people will be more altruistic than others, but that standard system variation for you.

Yes, well, the ones they display in that slideshow in your mega-church every weekend aren't exactly representational of the global atheist population.

This is doublethink.

You've invented a monstrous fate to convince people of, and then pretend that 'saving' them from your fictious horrors is virtuous (and, of course, you can convince yourself through this same framework that anyone not out to rescue people from The Great Burning Place Underneath is sinister - no matter what their actual lifestyle is)

More doublethink.

...The same missionary work tht involves going to Africa and convincing people that they will burn forever if they use a condom, thus exacerbating an overpopulation problem and AIDs epidemic of catastrophic proportions?

Virtuous indeed.

None of the above are positive things. Brainwashing people, convincing them to blow money on pseudoscientific junk & handing-out little booklets on what should make you feel bad about yourself is sick.

By this same standard, Joseph Stalin is one of the most admirable men to have ever walked the face of the Earth.

Step #1 is to try and eviscerate your preconceptions. Lay out everything that you currently see as being just plain 'the way it is', axe it, and start all over again. You have to rebuild your paradigm from scratch.

This will be rough, brutal work, and perhaps it's not fair for you to have to do this (if you're like most people, it was not your own direct fault for being indoctrinated into religion), but it is a necessary requirment for skeptical thought...

...And this is why. Doublethink.

You've been taught that the way to altruism is to invent evils, or otherwise label something as 'evil', and then 'save' people from that evil. The resulting 'saved' humans you've already cemented into your paradigm as being somehow 'better'.

You need to thoroughly re-examine this core structure of your currect perception. What makes a person 'better' than another? What makes a thing 'good' or 'evil'? Are there exceptions? How do you know that 'saving' a person from 'evil' things is always the best course of action?

No. You're just still applying the dogmatic doublethink to the world.

'Leaving the church' involves more than just not going to service every Sunday. It demands rethinking all of what you were told about 'virtues'. People with religion only seem more virtuous because you still have it in your mind that doing 'X' is evil and doing 'Y' is good and preventing people from doing 'Z' is courageous.

Again, you need to re-examine your thought process.

What do you mean by quality of life? My life is great, I do the things that I love to do, I have a happy family, a great and beautiful daughter, I work hard and I have great friends that have stuck with me through thick and thin.  That for me is a quality life. Why would you think I spend it all on fun? I wish I spend it all on fun sure, but I send my daughter to a good montisorri school, I work hard so that my wife doesnt' have to and gets to spend more time with my daughter, I share with my friends when they are in need. So yes I have more money not because I don't give to church but because I have invested my money in a wise manner. With that said that 10 percent I don't give to the church i use for the local economy,  buying from local farmers and local business if I can.

Do I help others of course when I can, I donate to the sick kids hospital and to MS foundation. I help with at risk youth and with getting gang members out of gangs. With that said that is still far better than giving it to the church, which uses it's money for itself first and then for the poor. I rather give it to something far more meaningful than a organization that has and still does promote hatred and ignorance, hatred towards gays and others of different sexual orientation, religious beliefs (or non religious beliefs) and ignorance towards science and the world around us. This also from a religion that it's followers after the tsunami hit south east asia, demanded that people convert to christianity before they received any aid or food. Great virtue there.

So I do not live a shallow and selfish life, not to me I don't since it is all a matter of perspective, christian lead shallow and selfish lives as far as I can see. They don't do good to do good, they do it to please a good and get into heaven. I do it because I want to do it, because I personally believe that it give more to society to help others in my society than to lead a selfish life, but I cannot help out everyone, I help out those that I can and that's it, and hope that others will follow my lead. Those are my reasons for reaching out towards others.

I have been an atheist since November, 2007.  I have made amends to past wrongs, becuase I felt the burden of hurting others that I didn't feel as a Christian.  I became acutely aware of how important honesty, transparency, and being fair with everyone truely is.  I have established better relationships, and have been told by various people I interact with that I have a strong character.  I took the dedication time to the Bible and speaking in tongues, and crying out for forgiveness and put it towards REALITY.  As such, I lost 80 lbs and kept it off, I now have an athletic build, and I've paid off all my credit card debt.  I did this in just over 12 months.  Who knows what the next 12 months can be?  It wasn't all gravy though, life is a bumpy ride.  I don't have faith in God, but I have faith in reality, and honestly; reality works.

After a couple months of dealing with a mild form of nihilism, as depressing as not living forever is, I found the ultimate value of life.  .  I made amends to those I've wronged in the past (10 years ago and so fourth), and have devoted my life to being an honest person.  Because I no longer hold myself accountable to a God who forgives me when I repent, I now hold myself accountable to the human race, and also much more conscience and empathetic towards others.  Because I no longer get fake forgiveness from a fake deity, and see that what I do effects others on a much more finite scale, I have been living my life sooo much better, and without guilt! 

edit: I was much more selifsh as a Christian; I put my personal time with a deity and the deities rules above all others; even if it caused discomfort or pain to others.  Many of my Christian friends still do this.  Spending all that time in selfish prayer, selfish bible study, and feeling better about it by asking for forgiveness and paying tithes.  Preaching to everyone that their sinners and giving a blind eye to what they REALLY need in their lives.

As an atheist, let me quote to you a Christmas Card from a fellow friend (who is actually a wiccan, but celebrates Christmas minus the Jesus part)

"Matt, Thank you for everythign this past year. You've been a truly great friend to me and I am so grateful that you are a part of my life. Here's to many more adventures next year"

/edit

According to "Beyond Tomorrow" (science Channel, december episode)It's been scientifically proven that all humans get a certain "high" off of being charitable.  I don't think the religion label depicts whether we give or not, I think it's something hard-wired.  It feels good to give something to another, especially if you know it makes them happy!  So an atheist doesn't develop "his" intuition, it's already there.

Our founding fathers (USA) were deists,  deists don't believe in a God that judges them either so their honor wasn't being used from a religious context, but from being human.  Yeah, they were completely secular, with no belief in an active God at all, but just a belief that some God of some sort (not the Christian one, mind you) made the universe and walked away.  Morally speaking, it's the same as atheism because there is no accountabliity to a deity, but to fellow humans.

Hello, sneaky weasel.

I stumbled across this site and your questions.  I read it and the 2 responses so far.  I am not an atheist but a Christian so perhaps my comments will not be welcome here.  Nevertheless the discussion is interesting so I'll risk it.  Does quality of life vary so much from human to human?  or do roughly the same types of things make people happy?  In 1937, some researchers set out to find what makes humans healthy and happy by tracking 268 Harvard University students.  In 2008 after 42 years, the director of the study, a Dr Vaillant, was asked what he had learned about human happiness.  He replied that Relationships are the key to happiness.  "Happiness is love - full stop" he said (Dr Vaillant cited in ODJ Sep - Nov 2010 published by RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids.).  It is a very small sample size so one can not to generalise from this study alone, but you could perhaps google the subject to see if there are any other relevant studies out there.  However, if Dr Vaillant is right in his conclusions, your best bet for happiness would be in pursuing quality relationships (with others as you no longer believe in God).  But it seems you are interested in more than happiness, you are interested in living a good life - what Christians usually call holiness.  You could let your conscience be the guide, I suppose, but your question implies more - where do you find the motivation to follow it?  Your question reminds me of a question put to Jesus in Mark 10:17-22.  Know it?  Check it out! Personally, I think this is the answer for theists and atheists alike, but then I would wouldn't I?  Keep Searching!  : )  Betty

I know very few christians who aren't sad when a loved one dies.  Even those who insist the loved one has "gone on to a better life".  And I have yet to meet anyone who rejoices when their loved one dies.  Maybe there are people who do - don't know.

No one gets out of here alive.  Death just is.  And so I live my life as best I can, finding what peace and happiness I can find where I can find it.  I'll be sad about dying later - maybe.

I'm not young - 60 years.  And I have had many loved pets die, dearly loved relatives and friends die.  You allow yourself time to grieve and then you get on with your life.  One foot in front of the other.

As for dying myself, I don't remember not being born, why should dying be any different?