Maybe controversial - Religion IS bad, but.....

[Sandman]

Anyway, the topic of these posts was "I kinda wish atheists did charity better than them" not, "I wish secularists did charity better."

More when I can.

-and when they do you'll decide that's not the "better" you meant.  Boring.

No. I don't think I would be a lot happier if I saw Atheists doing better, but I would be pleased. I  know I don't want to go back to the damn food bank I talked about.

I've been wanting to make it clear, what was on my mind when I posted this thread for awhile:

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I understand the average atheist gives about as much as a religious - tho I wasn't thinking about that when I posted.

I never saw many dedicated atheist charities:
When I look, Atheists represent about %5 of the population, but much less than %5 of organized charities self-identify as Atheist. I thought maybe these few charities
are just larger, bringing in more money.

I noticed a limited scope:
All major self-identified Atheist organizations I've seen focus just on helping atheists, much needed, but they do little outside of that. Maybe they promote seperation
of church and state, or another social cause. Even churches take care of their own - while doing other charities.

Other Atheist charities:
As for charities that identify as Atheist and focus on causes other than Atheism, I didn't know of any. So I searched, and found less than ten. Found a website that hooks up
non-religious volunteers with charities. I think it linked to two that specifically identified as Atheist. The other links were all secular, and I believe I've already
said why I don't see secular necessarily=atheist.  Some might say I just didn't find all the Atheist charities. Such hypothetical 'unfound' charities could do a better job of
connecting with the public - so I could find them - because I looked.

And the rest:
That leaves local Atheist clubs. It's hard to criticize the charity they do. They do good work, but don't have nearly the resources to do what larger charities can.

I thought there were more Humanist charities, but:
Humanism always 'felt' different than Atheism to me, but I should include organizations that identify as humanist. Many promote Atheism, but like Atheist
organizations, they represent far less than %5 of total charities. I understand the vast majority of their work is to support humanism, not so much other causes.
They are also needed, but again, even churches support their own - while doing other charity work.

Many charities did not stand out as Atheist to me:
Not to repeat stuff I've said, but beyond this it gets blurry. Plenty of secular charities have atheists or humanists values, but do not promote atheism or humanism.
More seculars simply focus on a cause - like the Pediatric Cancer Foundation- with no interest in identifying with or promoting anything other than their cause.

As I posted before, the U.S. is about %70 religious. The Civil Rights Act prohibits religious discrimination in hiring, so these 'blurry' charities could have maybe
%70 of their managers holding religious beliefs. So, it becomes hard for me to see the 'blurry' charities as organized and run by Atheists (or religious).
I know people claim these charities for Atheism. If you do then Atheist charity is great, but the connection still isn't as clear for me.
I guess it would be better if I could see the charities as Atheist.

So Fuck.

Overall, Atheists do great, much needed work. Work I appreciate.

This isn't a criticism of Atheist charity, because I just don't know how they could do it better.  I simply wished they did do it better.
In my mind, I didn't claim Secular charities for Atheism, and self-identified Atheist charities weren't well represented enough on their own for me.
Then, remembering that damn food bank, prompted this thread.

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I had said religion is very bad, and I wanted to say a little more on that:

When I was young, people really messed me up in the name of religion, in a very bad way... It left me with a deep anger towards religion that I'm still working out.
The anger poisons the mind, and I have have done so much thinking - even obsessively - just to try to see things clearly. So much crap pushed in my head.
I have low tolerance for any screwy idea anybody tries give me now, any politics. I'm always ready to argue it, always trying to get it right in my head.

I've had trouble holding jobs and many other issues.

It's been years of hard - obsessive - thinking through the crap, finding the right words to express what I didn't understand, and I'm still working on it.
I have yet to meet someone who has the deep, abiding, pain and anger that christians royally screwed me with. The Atheists I have met or seen, have all been
well adjusted, as it should be.

I have heard a few people talk with what seems like anger for the church, denigrate it, but it doesn't even resonate with me because it's nothing like my very
personal anger. I can't even try to talk the church down like others do. I can only find words for this personal anger and I don't think there's much room for it here.
This anger left me alienated even from my family. I have this sense that it is not possible to fit in with anyone, anyways. So screw the church.