FreeThought
You Can Give Without God
USA Today recently published an article that talked about Kiva, an online group that helps make micro-loans available to individuals starting or expanding small businesses, and the people who lend the money to make these loans possible. Last year Kiva started a competition to encourage people to lend money. Groups of people banded together to see which groups could lend and re-lend the most money.
And the winner is: Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious “committed to caring about suffering” with $761,975. Also, when sorted by “Religious Congregations” the number one group is The Flying Spaghetti Monster with $81,725.
This shouldn’t come to any big surprise. While there is a few atheist specific charities (Secular Humanist Aid and Relief Effort being a personal favorite), a number of big charities are secular (Amnesty International, Doctors without Borders, etc.) and 3 of the top philanthropists (for donations between 2002 and 2005) are Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and George Soros, none of whom would be considered religious.
Philanthropy is often one of the first things people mention when they are listing all the good that religious groups have done and yet the non-religious seem to be giving just as much, if not more. I just hope everyone keeps up the good work.
Disclaimer: The views expressed by an individual contributor to this blog are not necessarily shared by all members of FreeThought Fort Wayne. That is what makes this organization so interesting. Commenters on the FreeThought Fort Wayne blog are expected to abide by our comment policy. About the author: I am a full-time mom, part-time book peddler, some-time writer, and an amateur Play-Doh sculptress. Read more from this author
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7 comments for “You Can Give Without God”
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Nice…I like this a lot thanks Katie!!
Kiva is an amazing organization. I really encourage people to learn more about it and micro-loans in general. It’s the type of help that really empowers the receiver rather than making victims. Kiva changes people’s lives and communities for the better and doesn’t just feed them for a day.
Another non-profit is being setup by Dale McGowan, the author of Parenting Beyond Belief and Raising Freethinkers. It’s called The Foundation Beyond Belief.
Here’s the URL for more info:
http://www.parentingbeyondbelief.com/foundation/aboutfound.html
Here’s the short info on it (from the URL):
As a long-time atheist Kiva donor, I’d like to alert you to the fact that Kiva usually acts as a middle-man between donors and microfinance institutions (MFI). Those MFI’s may be religiously affiliated and may proselytize when distributing funds to recipients.
Firefox has a plug-in which can flag those MFI’s.
Personally, I think it’s a Bad Idea(tm) to not help simply because the MFI is religiously affiliated, but obviously, each person will have to make their own decision about that.
Very cool.
Thanks for the link, Skeptigator! As it happens, we’ve moved to here in order to demonstrate to the IRS that we are not affiliated with any for-profit dot-com goings-on.
The link in Mr. McGowan’s post appears to be broken. I believe it was intended to link to:http://www.foundationbeyondbelief.blogspot.com/