[extropy-chat] Atheist charities, or lack of

[Technotranscendence]

I'm an atheist and I give (small amounts since I'm not rich) to various charities, including things like local volunteer fire departments and rescue squads.

However, on the notion of non-religious charities, while I don't know of any specifically _atheist_ ones, I do know of many charities that do not have a religious affiliation -- including the aforementioned -- or a religious philosophy backing them.  Others would include groups like the United Way, Doctors without Borders, and Reading Is Fundamental.

There are also political groups that have an atheist ideology that do charitable work.  Various Left wing groups come to mind...

The key difference, though, is that your friend is comparing apples and oranges.  He's comparing churches to individuals: organized groups of theists to atheists in general.  I bet if we made the comparison of theists in general to atheists in general we might come up with no telling charity-giving differences between the two in general.  (In the US, theists make up about 90 to 95% of the population.  That doesn't mean people who are members of churches, just people who believe there's a God.)

There's also charity on a personal level, such as helping someone in need right in your neighborhood.  This could be a stranger or a friend or a family member.  This kind of "local" charity doesn't get tallied up or reported all that often, but it happens.

Finally, I think Ayn Rand put it right that charity is an ethically marginal issue.  Yes, it did help your wife and that's great.  But charity in and of itself cannot be the central issue in ethics -- not if ethics is about living life on Earth (meaning in this non-supernatural world).  (Yeah, I know not all atheists are Objectivists.:)  From Rand's perspective, people who create and produce give more to the community via unintended positive consequences than all the charitable donations combined.  She means things like the greedy businesswoman who happens to employ hundreds or thousands of people and creates new wealth allowing people to pull themselves up.  After all, wealth has to be created before it can be charitably given.  Without such wealth creation, the issue of charity would not exist.

On your idea of starting an atheist charity, go for it!  I would find it extremely humorous to see avowed atheists getting press on this issue.  (One time I wanted to get some friends to protest a church coming to our neighborhood.  Imagine placards like "Keep Jesus Out of Our Community!":)

My two cents!

Dan
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/

    See "Communication Breakdown: The Novels of Stanislaw Lem"
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/Lem.html
  From: kevinfreels at hotmail.com 
  To: ExI chat list 
  Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2003 6:13 PM
  Subject: [extropy-chat] Atheist charities, or lack of



  I have a friend who is extremely religious, but is always willing to debate me rationally. (As rationally as a deeply religious person can)

  One topic that recently came up in conversation was how much death and destruction has been caused by religion. He had nothing to say about this except for "there is no way we can know God's plan." 

  He admitted to christianity's shortcomings since "organized religion is run by mankind, and mankind has the capacity for evil"

  He then proceeded to list the good things that the church does. Things such as feeding the poor, missionary work, and comforting people while they are in need. Things such as going to hospitals to minister to those who are "soon to leave this earth" and helping people pay for medical procedures that they would otherwise not be able to afford. 

  My wife has actually been fortunate enough to have about $10,000 worth of surgeical procedure paid for by a catholic charity that is involved with St Mary's hospital here, even though she is an atheist.

  He then asked me how that compares with any atheist organization.



  I had to admit I had no idea. I told him I would check into it and we would continue at a later time. 

  Does anyone know what, if any, charitable organizations there are that are atheistic in nature? I did a google on atheist charity and found almost nothing. I am a bit disturbed by this. This would be a terrific way to promote rational thinking. Am I missing something here? Or am I maybe sitting on a potentially rewarding career?

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