Another What's the Alternative Thread

[_Dr. Shades]

If you want to become atheist or agnostic but must spend a few hours a week preserving some good things forever, then spend those hours making and burying time capsules.

Problem solved.

[_Drifting]

Should be no problem for you to clearly articulate what 'real good' is then...

That doesn't necessarily follow. There are some terms in common usage that are pretty well understood that people would have a horrible time articulating.

For example, try coming up with a definition of the word true. Most people understand that term precisely, but I suspect they would have a hard time defining it without using synonyms. You can always go to the dictionary and get a definition of true, just like you can get a dictionary definition of good. But I think that's pretty unnecessary. If people really think about it they know what good means. And if they think it includes some things that other people find controversial, then they also know that they may be stretching the meaning of the word, even if they're firmly convinced they're right.

For the record, "http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/good?s=t" says, "morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious: a good man."

If you cannot define what you believe 'real good' is then you cannot expect people to articulate how they would preserve it!

[_krose]

To put it into general terms, and something most groups, religious or not, are trying to do as they see or understand it, is to improve the human condition.

Well said. And we hope that will be a long-lasting contribution. Perhaps not exactly forever, but close enough for practical purposes.

[_Themis]

To put it into general terms, and something most groups, religious or not, are trying to do as they see or understand it, is to improve the human condition.

Well said. And we hope that will be a long-lasting contribution. Perhaps not exactly forever, but close enough for practical purposes.

If forever is possible, I think these same groups would work towards that.

[_just me]

To put it into general terms, and something most groups, religious or not, are trying to do as they see or understand it, is to improve the human condition.

Well said. And we hope that will be a long-lasting contribution. Perhaps not exactly forever, but close enough for practical purposes.

If forever is possible, I think these same groups would work towards that.

Indeed they are. Many groups and individuals are working towards equality for all, education for all, opportunities for generating income, medicine and medical care, etc, etc, etc.

All we have to do is look around and we find many, many atheists and others who are doing their part in improving the human condition.

Yay!

[_Drifting]

A sample of atheists who have worked towards improving the human condition...

Nikolai Vavilov (1887–1943): Russian and Soviet botanist and geneticist best known for having identified the centres of origin of cultivated plants. He devoted his life to the study and improvement of wheat, corn, and other cereal crops that sustain the global population.[272]
J. Craig Venter (1946–): American biologist and entrepreneur, one of the first researchers to sequence the human genome, and in 2010 the first to create a cell with a synthetic genome.[273]
Vladimir Vernadsky (1863–1945): Ukrainian and Soviet mineralogist and geochemist who is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and of radiogeology. His ideas of noosphere were an important contribution to Russian cosmism.[274]
George Wald (1906–1997): American scientist who is best known for his work with pigments in the retina. He won a share of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Haldan Keffer Hartline and Ragnar Granit.[275]
W. Grey Walter (1910–1977): American neurophysiologist famous for his work on brain waves, and robotician.[276]
James D. Watson (1928–): 1962-Nobel-laureate and co-discover of the structure of DNA.[277][278]
Joseph Weber (1919–2000): American physicist, who gave the earliest public lecture on the principles behind the laser and the maser, and developed the first gravitational wave detectors (Weber bars).[279]
Steven Weinberg (1933–): American theoretical physicist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979 for the unification of electromagnetism and the weak force into the electroweak force.[280][281][282]
Victor Weisskopf (1908–2002): Austrian-American theoretical physicist, co-founder and board member of the Union of Concerned Scientists.[283]
Frank Whittle (1907–1996): English aerospace engineer, inventor, aviator and Royal Air Force officer. He is credited with independently inventing the turbojet engine (some years earlier than Germany's Dr. Hans von Ohain) and is regarded by many as the father of jet propulsion.[284]
Ian Wilmut (1944-): English embryologist and is currently Director of the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known as the leader of the research group that in 1996 first cloned a mammal from an adult somatic cell, a Finnish Dorset lamb named Dolly.[285]
David Sloan Wilson (1949–): American evolutionary biologist, son of Sloan Wilson, proponent of multilevel selection theory and author of several popular books on evolution.[286]
Edward Witten (1951–): American theoretical physicist with a focus on mathematical physics who is a professor of Mathematical Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study. Witten is a researcher in superstring theory, a theory of quantum gravity, supersymmetric quantum field theories and other areas of mathematical physics.[287]
Lewis Wolpert CBE FRS FRSL (1929–): developmental biologist, author, and broadcaster.[288]
Steve Wozniak (1950–): co-founder of Apple Computer and inventor of the Apple I and Apple II.[289]
Elizur Wright (1804–1885): American mathematician and abolitionist, sometimes described as the "father of life insurance" for his pioneering work on actuarial tables.[290]
Will Wright (1960–): American computer game designer and co-founder of the game development company Maxis.[291]
Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920): German physician, psychologist, physiologist, philosopher, and professor. He is regarded as the "father of experimental psychology".[292][293]
Eliezer Yudkowsky (1979–): American artificial intelligence researcher concerned with the singularity and an advocate of friendly artificial intelligence.[294]
Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich (1914–1987): Soviet physicist born in Belarus. He played an important role in the development of Soviet nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, and made important contributions to the fields of adsorption and catalysis, shock waves, nuclear physics, particle physics, astrophysics, physical cosmology, and general relativity.[295][296]
Konrad Zuse (1910–1995): German civil engineer and computer pioneer. His greatest achievement was the world's first functional program-controlled Turing-complete computer, the Z3, which became operational in May 1941.[297][298]
Fritz Zwicky (1898–1974): Swiss astronomer and astrophysicist.[299]

[_krose]

If forever is possible, I think these same groups would work towards that.

Not just groups, but individuals as well. I'm not part of any organized group of 'atheignostics,' but I hope my efforts are contributing in some small way.

[_Themis]

If forever is possible, I think these same groups would work towards that.

Not just groups, but individuals as well. I'm not part of any organized group of 'atheignostics,' but I hope my efforts are contributing in some small way.

I would say the scientific endeavor is a major part of improving the human condition, and it is made up of individuals from religious and non-religious beliefs.

[_just me]

I would say that parenting can be a way of improving the human condition. Educators, Childcare providers, nurses and medical staff. People who work in crisis centers.

I mean, goodness, a lot of people regardless of beliefs spend many hours a week trying to preserve good things.

[_Drifting]

UNICEF