What IS good, and how do we determine it?

[Thumpalumpacus]

This life is the only one which we can all be 100% certain is real. Therefore, all other considerations must by definition come second. The reverse sets an extremely dangerous precedent that has been played out countless times through history, as pointed out above.

If believing in an afterlife means a person stops caring so much about material possessions and superficial things, and starts looking more out at the big picture verses just selfishly on themselves, then I think this is very positive. Even if it ends up not being true.

You realize that many, many atheists donate money and more importantly time, right? Just because we reject an afterlife doesn't mean we reject charity, and having worked a couple of years myself in a food kitchen in SoCal, I find that insinuation of yours rather insulting. Mr Agenda, here, manages an atheist charity in South Carolina, and many others here donate money or time.

I can turn your statement on its head and ask,if considerations of reward in the afterlife are what motivate your charity, how sincere can it really be?

I donate not because I hope for an otherworldly reward. I donate because I get a reward in this life -- the reward of knowing that I've helped someone worse off than I am. For my own self, I've found that charity work is fulfilling and satisfying in a way that doing it for an explicit reward could only diminish.