Is the catholic church a force for good?

[The Grand Nudger]

Justin, Tonus, Esquilax, KichigaiNeko, Rhythm...etc

Can you please help me build a scenario in which an atheist would lay down their earthly life for no reward.
I was hoping for some more detail about motivation and background information.

Just claiming that an atheist hypothetically could do the same thing as a theist misses the point because the atheist's motivation would presumably be different.

Two people can have widely divergent motivations and still manage to perform the same act.

Here's my scenario. A really really devout Christian who wants to follow Christ's example of sacrificial love (because the bible says so,) has given up their whole (adult) life to serve God. They remain celebate and gain their perceived ''purpose in life'' by doing righteous moral actions for the poor and homeless etc etc. No earthly spouse, children. No DNA to pass on. No patriotic loyalty to King and Country (man-made secular government,) This person isnt going to fight in a war because they regard murder/war as immoral. And to nullify the reward/heaven objection, I'm going to characterize them as a person who thinks they are already ''saved'' and laying down their life wouldnt make any difference to their entry into eternal life. Then, one day they have an unexpected opportunity to take the place of someone else in a hostage scenario and they die instead of the original hostage.

Now, their action is motivated by something in the (fictitious) bible, their relationship with God is imaginary according atheists. They gain nothing arising from their action. They dont even want a posthumous statue in their honor and there's no guarantee they would get a statue anyway.

Where is their atheist counterpart? And what motivation lies behind the atheists corresponding desire to take the place of the hostage?

What prevents this person with these actions from being an atheist? We lay our own lives on the line for each other with a surprising level of frequency and disregard for spiritual association. Your hypothetical christian didn't ask the person if they had accepted god as their saviour before they laid their life on the line, did they? I seem to recall having explained how easily we can sacrifice our lives without any god or god belief being behind it within the context of military action. Perhaps someone else managed to ask this question in a similar manner and I'm just painting your name over the posts in my mind? You wouldn't be repeating a question that had already been answered, ad naus style, would you?