An Atheist, or anyone seperated from God, will focus solely on their accomplishments on Earth.
I suppose you can put it that way, but I'd rather say that we just want to be as happy as possible during our lifetime. In fact the same can be said of Christians or other deists as well, just that some of their happiness comes from what they believe will happen to them in the afterlife.
You see the rappers on mtv sporting their bling bling and pimps enjoying multiple sex partners. These people look at us Christians and think we're wasting our lives not enjoying these things, so they think we're ignorant and missing out. They believe, "You only live once."
I'd say that's a fairly rare behavior for ANYONE let alone atheists. I honestly have no idea what the religious beliefs of rappers like that are. It's hard for me to imagine someone like that takes the time to think about such things. More likely than not they were raised in a Christian household though. But you seem to say that by their deeds they aren't Christian, which begs the question of what a "true Christian" IS. Which of course, is either a matter of opinion (and we wouldn't want to force our opinions on others), or you submit to an authority like the Pope.
A Christian, however, believes that there's a bigger picture and Earth is just training grounds until we get into Heaven. So we don't focus solely on our accomplishments here, but we focus more on preparing for the next step. So when a Christian sees an Atheist sporting their bling bling and pimpin the hoes, we think they're the ones who are ignorant because they think they've got it all but when we die, they won't have anything and we will have it all.
Well, it turns out that the percentage of the Christian population that is in prison is decidedly greater than the percentage of atheists in prison. That is to say, according to the United States justice system, atheists are in general leading more moral lives than anyone. But that again can bring up the "true Christian" problem. Which parallels this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_scotsman
To be honest, having read the New Testament multiple times, I'm not convinced that Christians necessarily have to believe in Hell, or at least, Hell is not the traditional 'fire and brimstone' place but more of an abstraction.
So it's just a matter of what works best for you. Personally, I look at the world as foul and corrupt. People kill and steal, gangsters are glorified, girls are getting knocked up by losers, kids are carrying guns, politicians are corrupt, people are suffering, and the bad guys always win. As a Christian, I believe that this is not our "real" life and that there is something better waiting for me after this; a place where there is no pain and no corruption and no evil. Believing that a place like that exists is what gives me peace of mind. So when I see all the killing and **** and corruption, it doesn't bring me down because I know something better is waiting for us who have faith, and that the evil in the world is only temporary.
Well, most atheists don't believe in absolute good or evil. All those things which you have called evil, the deeds are being carried out by people who probably think they are in fact doing the right thing. People don't go around wondering how evil they can be today like cartoon villains.
For me, "good" is whatever makes me happy, and "bad" is whatever gets in the way of me being happy. And I would actually argue that that goes implicitly for everyone, that their brain is wired to pick out a course of action according to that definition. Of course, people are prone to a bad judgment, and a lot of people don't even know what makes them happy, so that's why a lot of people aren't happy, and that's why a lot of people are corrupt. "Evil" is a matter of opinion, and "corruption" is a matter of irrational selfishness or just plain stupidity.
In fact I'd say far, far more harm was ever done in this world simply out of ignorance than out of mailce.
Lastly I'd like to add again, that whatever comfort one's beliefs give somebody, has absolutely nothing to do with their truth value.
