Atheists are the most generous—even without heavenly reward!

[SecularMotion]

Who gives the most to charitable causes? Those who believe in gods or those who don’t?

“Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven…” (Mark 10:21)

“Any charity you give is for your own good. Any charity you give shall be for the sake of GOD. Any charity you give will be repaid to you…” (Koran 2:272)

Charitable behavior gets big perks in the afterlife, according to Christian and Islamic theology. Philanthropy, in these creeds, is a highly profitable long-term investment, a down payment on ecstatic immortality. Quite the bargain!

But atheists? No heaven awaits them. No pearly gates, eager virgins, harping angels, fluffy clouds, or succulent oasis. No reward whatsoever. Atheists have no faith, no expectation of benefit from a deity. So, atheists are probably selfish, right? Pitiless, parsimonious. Totally stingy misers, not passing a penny off to the poor…correct?

WRONG! Atheists, non-believers, secular humanists, skeptics—the whole gamut of the godless have emerged in recent years as inarguably the most generous benefactors on the globe. That’s right. Hordes of heretics are the world’s biggest damned philanthropists. Both individually and in groups, heathen infidels are topping the fundraising charts.

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/pellissier20111125

[MarkCharles]

1. Interesting findings! I anxiously await the response to this study from

the "beleiver" crowds.

I seem to recall someone posted a few weeks ago saying that, since there are so few skeptics, that atheists are a small minority, thus their contributions are small, compared to the hordes of believers who give most of their money to their religious organizations.

[Populist_Prole]

2. And without the threat of eternal damnation either

Because they can separate reality ( that is, the actual world we live in ) from ideology.

[dtexdem]

3. Does this mean that all of us skeptics will go to heaven?

;-)

[MarkCharles]

4. Yeah, we'll all go to the heaven we don't believe in!

[Deep13]

11. nope

:-)

[izquierdista]

5. This one isn't

I hate charities. Ringing bells, boots waved at a red light, junk mail trying to get a donation for some address labels, jars at the checkout stand with a photo, bins to drop canned goods or toys or whatever, cashiers told to ask each customer for another dollar, schemes to round your total off to the next dollar with the change going to a cause, beggars with a cup, entrepreneurs in the spare change industry, United Way campaigns, automated payroll deductions, check-off schemes, matching programs, telethons, religious do-gooders, save the children, save the whales, save the manatee, save the rain forest; door-to-door cookies, candies, jellies, or sauerkraut; just a dollar for a raffle ticket, ribbon, button, pin, bumper sticker, or pencil; charitable logos on t-shirts, caps, windbreakers, scarves, handkerchiefs, belt buckles, or underwear; pink ribbons, yellow ribbons, blue ribbons, and multicolored ribbons; I despise them all.

If a cause is worthwhile, it is worth doing with tax dollars and the support of the government. If we had universal health care, half of the charities in the U.S. would go out of business.

[Deep13]

14. Agree with the need for a public solution.

The problem with charity is that it does nothing to solve the underlying problem: poverty. After one spends a couple of hours at the soup kitchen, the recipients are still destitute. When I actually had disposable income, I gave quite a bit of money to candidates and campaigns that supported systemic reform and relatively little to actual charity. I gave the Federal maximum to John Kerry for President and Sherrod Brown for Senate, for example. I felt then like I was also supporting my own future as well as everyone else's.

[Warpy]

6. The Atheist, Agnostic and Freethinkers group at Kiva

have loaned out nearly twice as much as the second largest group there, the Christians, have done.

Yes, these are microloans, but every microloan out there is given with the knowledge that a surprise pregnancy or civil unrest can derail repayment and turn it into a charitable contribution.

Atheists tend to give more precisely because we think this is all there is and have decided that we're the ones who have to make it a better place to live, no supernatural being is going to swoop down to save our asses, ever.

After all, what kind of world do you want to live in? Do you want a dog eat dog world of strife and misery with the hope of a reward after you're finally dead or do you want a world where we all strive to help each other and lift each other up out of poverty?

The answer determines how much you lend or give.

[ZombieHorde]

7. Awesome. nt

[Major Nikon]

8. Imagine if you also deducted what is given to churches but doesn't actually go to the needy

A lot of what is considered "charity" goes to things like buying the pastor a new cadillac, Kenneth Copeland's lakeside mansion and jet, and paid sabbaticals to counties with lax enforcement on child molestation. Deduct those things and the difference becomes even larger.

[MarkCharles]

9. Church donors probably already pay more than 50% to keep their church

their pastor, assistant pastor, religious education guy, etc etc....paid and well paid and well maintained.

Meanwhile, I have a distant Christian pastor relative, she is struggling to get by and put her children through college, in subsidized religious colleges.

Talk about double taxation ....the colleges her kids go to are tax free, but she has to pay something to send them there.

Her 100-200 church members in middle America, probably don't have a clue that their $10 a week donation has so many strings attached to it, and probably only $30 a year goes to missions in other places in the world.

[Major Nikon]

13. We have many large churches here in Texas and their pastors are quite wealthy when they retire

I have a distant relative that retired from one of them and he is quite wealthy. They preach a lot of prosperity gospel around here.

http://www.cultwatch.com/HowPastorsGetRich.html

[Deep13]

10. I know there is no reward for suffering, so I do what I can...

...to help people in this life. I can't rely on god to fix things. I hate knowing people are suffering.

[NMMNG]

12. Giving because it's the right thing to do, not because it will get you something

:shrug:

[Major Nikon]

15. You do get something out of it

You get a better community and/or a better world.

[NMMNG]

16. True

But it's not the "personal reward" promised to religious believers (heaven, 72 virgins, etc).

[PassingFair]

17. “I don't believe in God. My God is patriotism."

“I don't believe in God. My God is patriotism. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.”
― Andrew Carnegie

[Major Nikon]

18. God is man's greatest invention

That's what I believe.