(June 12, 2013 at 3:13 am)Dena Wrote: Secondly ~ Atheism is a lack of belief that gods exist. How on earth would you know if anyone helping out is an atheist? You don't. They could be a part of many groups that give aid. Heck, they could be a part of the church group!
^-- That. It's not, after all, like all atheists go around with huge tattoos on their foreheads proclaiming "I'm an atheist and I'm doing good!" Some are more than happy to go around telling people they're an atheist, others either can't, some don't have an inclination to, and others don't see the point.
I volunteer for an organization that raises money for several children's charities in my area and I've never gone around telling everyone how I'm an atheist and I'm volunteering for this charity - on the one hand I live in a city where very few people would care that I'm an atheist and on the other I'm there to raise money for a bunch of kids not to self-promote. I very well could be doing a disservice to the idea of atheists-doing-good but I honestly don't know how I would or could go about bringing the topic up as nobody in the four years I've volunteered for this charity has ever discussed their motivations for volunteering - I suppose I assume we're all there to have fun because this charity is a lot of fun to volunteer for.
Bottom line to me is that you shouldn't automatically assume that every volunteer for a chairty activity or relief group is made up entirely of religious people. Atheists are out there doing good, some of us are just quiet about it.
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.
