I made a donation today to help Haiti

[catsittingstill]

I found an article about the Richard Dawkins Foundation's collecting paypal donations to send to Doctors Without Borders and the International Red Cross, and made a donation.  No big deal, except in the process of finding it I came across another article.

It's what I've come to think of as typical--saying basically that if an atheist gives to an atheist charity the fact that there is some faint hope of fighting the pervasive prejudice against atheists by donating means that donation doesn't count, and besides, your conscience comes from God and how can atheists be so dumb that in spite of experiencing their conscience they deny God.  The usual.

He's got me all wrong.  I gave through an atheist organization because I turned down the heat and gave up soda pop to scrape together money to be able to help people out.  I emphatically don't want it squandered on gilding and limousines, or--God help us--on solar powered talking bibles. 

Your mileage may vary.  If you feel that what a Haitian child with two broken legs who hasn't eaten in  week really needs is a solar-powered talking bible, by all means fund it.  But I hope that I--and most people!--have better sense.

Comments

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

The article is, as you say, bilge.

But the fact that Dawkins couldn't do this without making a debating point out of it, and thus laid himself open to having his priorities called into question, was, I think, an error of judgment on his part.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

The mere fact that it was Dawkins that did it would have turned it into a debating point whether he said a word on the subject or not.

And it is worthwhile to note that prejudice against atheists is such that many people say we don't give to charity like religious people. So attempting to inject some real-world evidence into the debate seems like a good idea to me, even though only a portion of the people involved accept real-world evidence as valid. Diluting that prejudice even slightly is worth doing.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

The mere fact that it was Dawkins that did it would have turned it into a debating point whether he said a word on the subject or not.

You're right, of course. Poor man, why can't they just leave him alone... :)