Just wondering where the atheist groups are that are helping disaster recovery or other social service causes? Do they not exist or do they just not get media coverage? I am asking because all we hear about is how much atheists cannot stand religion, yet we never, even from atheists, hear about what is happening among their ranks other than the battle against all things religious. Not just rarely mind you. I have never once heard from a single atheist (and I have had numerous conversations with many atheists of different shades of non-belief) that atheists have ever called together a social cause to help a needy person out.
I have been involved with both Habitat for Humanity and Compassion International for a while now among many other religiously motivated organizations that have had a large impact on the poor and impoverished. We hear rhetoric about the violence of religion from atheist ranks and rarely hear about the services that religious people do provide such as this one in New Orleans I had not heard of until now:
"The prophet Jeremiah is telling the Israelites, who are in exile in Babylon, to 'seek the welfare of the city, for in its welfare you will find your own.' And that's the motto of the Jeremiah group locally," Bolton says.
Long before Katrina, the Jeremiah Group was active in on grassroots issues, such as fighting for better bathrooms in the schools and advocating for safer neighborhoods.
But after Katrina, the Jeremiah Group found a new focus as people returned to New Orleans and tried to pick up their lives, says Jaime Oviedo of Christ Temple Church.
"We started to hear that rent was doubling and tripling in some cases. And we started to hear this, and there was nobody fighting against it. And we started to have public meetings, and we started to hear this cry of 'the rent, the rent, the rent,'" Oviedo says. "And we said we need to get into the fight."
So why can't atheists give a little good news once in a while? What have you done for us lately Harris, Hitchens, and Dawkins? And I say this to help spread a little good news about atheism since the constant drum-beat of the harm of religion just gets tiresome and really does nothing to help people in palpable ways (as does the drum-beat of fundamentalist doctrine). So if those organizations are there, why not prop them up a bit more? All Christians really see is the bright yellow book.
No related posts.
Here is an secular humanist organization that is specifically chartered to help people afflicted by natural or human disasters. They collected donations for the Tsunami disaster relief effort and the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=main&page=SHARE
My impression is that, as you noted, there isn't much athiest / agnostic / secular humanist activity of this sort. The problem with such organizations, in my view, is that they use charity as a "weapon" in a game of social identity politics. I don't claim to be a very charatable person, but personally, I donate to worthy causes without worrying too much about their religious affiliation. And secular humanist who is worried about it can find plenty of secular relief organizations to give to. They may not be religious, but they don't exist to make an idelogical statement, which is OK by me.
Here is an secular humanist organization that is specifically chartered to help people afflicted by natural or human disasters. They collected donations for the Tsunami disaster relief effort and the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?sectio...
My impression is that, as you noted, there isn't much athiest / agnostic / secular humanist activity of this sort. The problem with such organizations, in my view, is that they use charity as a "weapon" in a game of social identity politics. I don't claim to be a very charatable person, but personally, I donate to worthy causes without worrying too much about their religious affiliation. And secular humanist who is worried about it can find plenty of secular relief organizations to give to. They may not be religious, but they don't exist to make an idelogical statement, which is OK by me.