Why You Don't Need God to be Good: the Rise of Atheist Charities
"Charitable organizations geared towards non-believers are growing. "Good without God" has become a catch-phrase of the increasingly vocal atheist and freethinker movement -- from books to billboards, the non-religious are asserting the strength of their humanist ethics. As atheists emerge from the closet and stand up for themselves, one message they're bringing along is that charity is far from an inherent monopoly of the religious."
“skeptics and humanists are frustrated that so many charitable organizations, especially those that help people afflicted by natural or human disasters, have efforts coordinated by religious organizations. These organizations sometimes proselytize to the people in need of their services. This is entirely unacceptable.”
as much as i like helping people / organizations, i always try to picks secular ones. it is really disconcerting when you go to a thing and the organizers are like "let's do this for god!" or whatever. i mean, i'm here to go good because i think it's the nice thing to do, not because some deity told me i should.
giving and helping should really be about the end goal, not about the motivation for why we do it. but, of course, many who don't agree with the organization's reasons for giving are understandably uncomfortable with contributing. so i'm glad there is a rise of secular charities. i know i am much more open to supporting secular causes.
No comments:
Post a Comment