Richard Dawkins has started up a charity called “Non Believers Giving Aid” so atheists can give to relief efforts in Haiti in a way which promulgates their atheism. Because as I’m sure you know when Haitians receive relief they’re very interested in whether it came from a believer or a non-believer.
Dawkins, who has been saying for years that religion is the “root of all evil,” is now oddly intent on proving that atheists can be as good as Christians. Recently, atheists seem intent on proving they can be good without God.
I always get a kick out of evangelizing atheists and how they’re so desperate to prove that they’re as good (and usually better) than us religious types. Dawkins writes on the charity’s website: “When donating via Non-Believers Giving Aid, you are helping to counter the scandalous myth that only the religious care about their fellow-humans.” While we should all applaud Mr. Dawkins’ altruistic efforts to help his fellow man I’m just not sure he’s making the point he thinks he’s making.
If Dawkins is running this charity to show up religion and helping Haitians is only a secondary consequence then we could hardly claim that what he’s doing is good by most definitions. Because if that’s true then it would seem that the greatest value of Haitians lives to Dawkins is how they make Dawkins look.
Continue reading over at the National Catholic Register.
January 19, 2010 at 5:16 pm
Yet you'll notice that every time we try to insert goodness (such as protection for human life) into government policies, we are accused of trying to push our religion on them.
January 19, 2010 at 5:19 pm
That's okay. They can try to be good and have God not affect them. Let them try. It's like trying to swim in the ocean and not get wet.
January 19, 2010 at 5:41 pm
The poor Haitian won't mind where the money comes from. I am reminded of a venerable Polish joke:
The time is Poland under Soviet Communism. An old peasant woman is kneeling at a wayside shrine bewailing her poverty and imploring God for money for necessities. At that moment a high Party official drives by. He orders his chauffeur to stop and find out what the woman is doing and on being told, he gets out of the car and gives the woman 1,000 zloties insisting that there is no God and that this is a gift from the Party, etc, etc. As the car drives off, the woman return to her prayers "Thank You God for sending me this money, but why did you have to use those bastards as intermediaries?"
January 19, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Yeah, Madalyn Murray O'Hair tried this with American Atheists (now United Secularists) of America. And well…look what happened to her. This is exactly what happens when morals and beliefs are as arbitrary and diverse as the people who possess them.
January 19, 2010 at 8:38 pm
1 Corinthians 13:3
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
… since nothing is what anti-theists believe in, they most certainly have their reward.
Matthew 6:2
So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
January 19, 2010 at 9:29 pm
If Dawkins is an atheist, how can he believe in things like moral good and moral evil? Isn't he implying that there is a true morality?
January 19, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Atheists get their arguments all mixed up. No one makes an intellectually serious argument that atheists can't do good. The argument is that if there is no God, there is no such thing as good, only each man's subjective opinion on what's better and what's worse.
By demonstrating that atheists do good, Dawkins is demonstrating that good exists which is a hell of a lot closer to demonstrating that God exists than I suspect most atheists want to be.
January 19, 2010 at 11:47 pm
It would seem sir, that the artical you posted is closed to comments. A sad thing really as I have come under attack there and would have liked to have defended myself (My name is Matt which no doubt caused all sorts of mix-ups. I'm sorry for that).
I find it strikeing that, while in no way identifing my religious beliefes I am assumed to be Christian and one that adhears to a protestent understanding of the Bible and Christian beliefe.
I also find it odd that my question, "Why is human life important if God does not exist. Why should I care of any other human life if it all ends in obvilion" (paraphaseing of course) was meet with such anger and hostility while comeing no closer to answering my question.
A shame. I look foward to more of your articals, sir and remain a fan of your blog site.
Yours,
Matt
January 20, 2010 at 12:23 am
I didn't close the comments. NCR must have felt the comments were getting too angry.
Don't worry about the "Matt" confusion. I was glad to have someone on my side. I thought the point you made about the importance of human life was dead on right. Thanks.
January 20, 2010 at 2:47 am
It's good that they are helping. I doubt Haitians care where the help is coming from as long as it is coming.
But to announce this aim of countering the "scandalous myth that only the religious care about their fellow-humans" seems a little crass and one wonders whether they are giving out of goodness or just to boost the atheist appeal. Of course it could really be that their first intention is to help, but that comment from Dawkins doesn't have to be there.
Also, this scandalous myth that they are claiming is really a myth because I don't think most religious people will say that. Maybe some, but not all.
January 21, 2010 at 2:21 am
Love the Polish joke. On the plus side every time Dawkins does something stupid it reminds believers to pray for him.
January 22, 2010 at 12:16 am
Typical canard. If atheists are trying to prove they're moral (and what better way than by action?), then it's only because religion is constantly telling us we're not, over and over with that ridiculous "morality comes from the Bible" argument.
It seems like a valid defense. If someone repeatedly tells me I'm incapable of solving the Rubik's Cube, and so I solve it just to show that I can, then who's shown whom? To say "Oh, how pathetic, solving the Rubik's Cube just to prove me wrong!" is just a grade-school tactic.
January 22, 2010 at 12:21 am
So is Dawkins sending atheist books to Haiti to try to convert people, or is he doing something useful like sending money?
All the atheist orgs are sending actual helpful items.
In contrast, many Religious orgs are sending bibles, evangelical litterature, e-meters, prayers and other useless items along with their money.
At least with the secular orgs, there is no dispicable bait and switch.
January 22, 2010 at 12:29 am
Hey fundies, come join us atheists over here:
http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/letters/story/1035728.html?mi_pluck_action=comment_submitted&qwxq=4395859#Comments_Container
January 22, 2010 at 12:33 am
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January 22, 2010 at 12:39 am
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January 22, 2010 at 12:50 am
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January 22, 2010 at 1:32 am
Christians donate to Christian charities, atheists contribute through secular charities~
Isn't it human nature for individuals to join with others as part of their own, larger community?
Atheists choose to help because they care about people, and if they can begin to overcome the bigotry and hatred directed at them by acting collectively, then why not?