Hurricane Gustav
Offline I am from Shreveport, La. and I have been observing the past weeks' response to Hurricane Gustav. One thing struck me as I watched the news on the storm and listened to the stories of refugees. The thing that I thought was most interesting is that the government called on churches to assist in aiding the refugees. To take them in temporary shelters and many churches are prepared to do such a thing. I don't know of any atheist organizations who were first in line to help those that are needy. I am not saying there are any. I'm just saying it seemed they were conspicuously absent.
The point is, that a belief in God prompts believers to help their fellow man especially in time of need. The logical position of atheism seems that their main concern is not for their fellow man first but for themselves first. At least that's the way I see it. Then again I could be wrong.
"An unexamined life is not worth living. An unexamined belief is not worth believing." - Dr. Abraham Vema
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You are wrong. You're thinking atheism is an organization like a church is. Typical for theists, no thinking outside their own little world.
The atheists are there, among the medics, logistics personnel, general volunteers, and donors of money, blood and supplies. You don't see them because there is no atheist banner to wave and because they are not doing it because they are atheists.
They're doing it because they are concerned and caring human beings.
So, kindly shove your self-riotousness up your ass.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
Expanding on what Hannelore said, no one ever does anything 'because of Atheism'. Atheism means one thing, no belief in god. It means nothing beyond that until people want to start putting other adjectives on it like 'gnostic' or 'weak' or so on.
However, because Atheism says so little about us, we can fill up all of the rest of our personality with other sources of ethics and insight such as Secular Humanism, Empiricism, or, oh I don't know, Just bloody fucking Kindness.
Essentially, you are both half wrong and half right and all presumptious asshole. We don't do it because we're an Atheist, we do it because we're a god damned human. I would like to suggest you come join the rest of the species and stop trying to insist that you're the only type of people helping, or if you are going to insist that, then back it up with surveys and scientific studies instead of talking out your ass.
Also, every time you say 'I do this because God wants me to' you do it not because you think its just the right thing to do, but because you don't want god to be unhappy with you. Just like a kid playing nice and sitting still when he really wants to go on the swing, you're just afraid of a spanking. And I can say that, because its directly stated in every facet of religious life.
P.S. The largest transparently operated charity in the history of the world was founded by an Atheist.
When you say it like that you make it sound so Sinister...
Hi chan. God doesn't do anything, let alone prompt people to help each other. My theory about how your religion fits into society is that it's like a philosophical snowball; a loose assemblage of ideas that rolls through the slope of history, picking up good ideas like helping people, bizarre superstitions like gods, and terrible ideas like divine retribution. It's not that helping people, or hurting people for that matter, is something that needs to be justified or explained beyond the innate human impulses; but the fact is that it's become stuck with ideas like religion, and because people are generally at a loss to understand their own motives, they don't know why they do the things they do, and are forced to turn to extremely poor explanations like yours.
When it works, it works. Few will argue that people helping each other out of a mess like that is bad. But religion doesn't just find itself the "explanation" for the urge to help others. Religious philosophy is like a rope with a life preserver on one end, and an anchor on the other. Sometimes we get the philanthropy, and the rest of the time we get the senseless opposition to progress and tolerance. None of which can be argued with, because religion doesn't explain; it only asserts, making it a poor basis for consistent and just actions.
Atheists can help people for even better reasons than religious people do. No reward is anticipated, no punishment feared. Since atheism isn't a unifying position, it's unlikely you'll see large scale atheist organizations materialize that do much more than run a few media campaigns on a shoe string budget (no guilty parishioners to flip the bill) to spread tolerance and awareness of the atheist's position. This isn't to say there aren't secular charities and the like, but they're not tied to atheism awareness and have no reason to be. That churches provide a sense of community is an idea worth considering. As social progress continues, hopefully organizations will gradually take the place of churches, providing an impetus toward community and social cohesion that doesn't have to be justified with nonsense, and doesn't come at the steep cost your religion does.
You're being pretentious.
The government is only interested in the facilities.
Might as well put those empty buildings to some use. They're just sitting there wasting space and building materials
People who think there is something they refer to as god don't ask enough questions.
The delusional (religious idol worshipers) far out number the enlightened (atheists, of no master). What we call "normal" is therefore sad. The church, an invented human crutch for the fearful dumb majority is therefore abundantly visible. Common sense is an oxymoron. One with any wise sense is not common.
People "naturally" generally care and help those who are deeply suffering and in harms way. Traditional religion of the common is however a huge aid to the mass killing of an invented and a most often created enemy.
Have you watched the sick fear mongering super religious republicans this week? They are collectively, beyond a doubt, an enemy to all humanity, and that is not an invention of my delusion. They do more harm than good. Too many democrats aren't much better.
I am atheist, I care. Idol worshipers are an insult to basic sensibility.
Atheism Books.
I would like to add to what others have said. You don't see as many atheist organizations because we do not receive as much funding/support from the public in general. There is still a strong distrust in America, and thus people aren't really willing to donate to "atheist organizations."
In any event, atheists tend to just volunteer for existing charities, such as the Red Cross. I personally care very much about others. I actually value the lives of others more than my own. Don't get me wrong, I love life and the ability to simply observe the universe, but I like seeing humanity as a whole. I personally wish everyone could live by John Lennon's "Imagine."
"Imagine all the people living for today."
So, it is not atheism or theism that prompts people to do good, necessarily. A good person is a good person, and a bad person is a bad person, no matter what their faith or lack of faith. If someone does good things only to please a higher being/in hopes of a reward, then I feel very sorry for that individual.