Atheism and charity

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Per capita atheists and agnostics in America give significantly less to charity than theists even when church giving is not counted for theists.

Concerning the issue of atheism and charity, charitable giving by atheists and agnostics in America is significantly less than by theists, according to a study by the Barna Group:

The typical no-faith American donated just $200 in 2006, which is more than seven times less than the amount contributed by the prototypical active-faith adult ($1500). Even when church-based giving is subtracted from the equation, active-faith adults donated twice as many dollars last year as did atheists and agnostics. In fact, while just 7% of active-faith adults failed to contribute any personal funds in 2006, that compares with 22% among the no-faith adults.[1]

A comprehensive study by Harvard University professor Robert Putnam found that religious people are more charitable than their irreligious counterparts.[2][3] The study revealed that forty percent of worship service attending Americans volunteer regularly to help the poor and elderly as opposed to 15% of Americans who never attend services.[4][5] Moreover, religious individuals are more likely than non-religious individuals to volunteer for school and youth programs (36% vs. 15%), a neighborhood or civic group (26% vs. 13%), and for health care (21% vs. 13%).[6][7]

Arthur C. Brooks wrote in Policy Review regarding data collected in the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey (SCCBS) (data collected by in 2000 by researchers at universities throughout the United States and the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research):

The differences in charity between secular and religious people are dramatic. Religious people are 25 percentage points more likely than secularists to donate money (91 percent to 66 percent) and 23 points more likely to volunteer time (67 percent to 44 percent). And, consistent with the findings of other writers, these data show that practicing a religion is more important than the actual religion itself in predicting charitable behavior. For example, among those who attend worship services regularly, 92 percent of Protestants give charitably, compared with 91 percent of Catholics, 91 percent of Jews, and 89 percent from other religions.[8]

ABC News reported the following:

...the single biggest predictor of whether someone will be charitable is their religious participation.

Religious people are more likely to give to charity, and when they give, they give more money: four times as much. And Arthur Brooks told me that giving goes beyond their own religious organization:

"Actually, the truth is that they're giving to more than their churches," he says. "The religious Americans are more likely to give to every kind of cause and charity, including explicitly non-religious charities."[9]

Given that atheistic evolutionary thinking has engendered social darwinism and given that the proponents of atheism have no rational basis for morality in their ideology, the immoral views that atheists often hold and the low per capita giving of American atheists is not unpredictable.

Atheism, uncharitableness and suicide

See also: Atheism and depression and Atheism and suicide

A number of studies have confirmed that there is an inverse relationship to doing volunteer work and depression.[10] The atheist population has a higher suicide rate than the general population. (see: Atheism and suicide).

See Also

External links

Notes

  1. Atheists and Agnostics Take Aim at Christians The Barna Update, 2007.
  2. Religious people make better citizens, study says by Pew Research Forum, May 13, 2009
  3. Religious people are 'better neighbors' by USA Today, 11/14/2010
  4. Religious people make better citizens, study says by Pew Research Forum, May 13, 2009
  5. Religious people are 'better neighbors' by USA Today, 11/14/2010
  6. Religious people make better citizens, study says by Pew Research Forum, May 13, 2009
  7. Religious people are 'better neighbors' by USA Today, 11/14/2010
  8. Brooks, Arthur C., faith and charitable giving Policy Review, Oct-Dec 2003, p.2.
  9. Stossel, John and Kendall, Kristina Who Gives and Who Doesn't? ABC News, November 28, 2006
  10. http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/science-of-happiness/caring/caring-and-happiness-reviews/