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how do we as atheists feel about companies using customers to donate money?
June 8, 2015 at 6:44 pm
for example i went to taco bell and they said would u like to donate a dollar to "help a local teen graduate highschool" and i hate when businesses do that because apart from all the rumors that very little of that money actually makes it to a charity, i feel like if they want to donate money they shouldn't piggy back on their customers, instead they should donate their own money.
and the thing is i do believe in chairty and i myself donate quite a bit where I can, but when I go out to eat I go for food not to be cheeped out into donating 1$ for a charity that I can't even find a website for. Also it's tough because my parents are from india and my skin is brown so if the people behind me in line see i say no to the donation they will say "oh that cheap indian didn't donate" - so I feel pressured to because my people have a bad enough reputation as it is, aside from all the others who think I am some how linked to al-quida, but have they have no idea that I served in the US military right outside of highschool and how much money i do donate every year.
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RE: how do we as atheists feel about companies using customers to donate money?
June 8, 2015 at 6:56 pm
I'm gettin' too old for this shit...
Yop, you don't know me and I don't know you, but from what I've seen of your posting I strongly recommend you generally chill the fuck out when it comes to your outlook on life. I cannot fathom thinking that far into pretty much any scenario, on that many levels, but I'll try and bullet point my post for you.
- If you don't like businesses asking money for charity from their customers, then don't donate through that avenue. Like you said, there are other ways.
- I highly doubt people behind you are as judgemental as you think they are. They are most likely preoccupied with thoughts of consuming extremely unhealthy, greasy shit, not analysing the behaviour of the indian gentleman in front of them to look for confirmation of their deep-seated racism.
- If people DO want to wallow in their own ignorance and automatically link you to terrorist organisations based purely on your skin colour, there is precious little you can do to change their mind. Stressing about it will neither solve the problem nor make your life any easier - quite the opposite in fact. To quote Judi Lynn's (another member here) avatar: "Some people will never like me. And I will never give a fuck.
Ok, that's me done. Hope it helps.
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RE: how do we as atheists feel about companies using customers to donate money?
June 8, 2015 at 6:59 pm
It's a question of how we as individuals feel. Personally, it annoys me. It would be fine if they put up a sign saying you can contribute but I don't think they should be actively soliciting customers.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
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RE: how do we as atheists feel about companies using customers to donate money?
June 8, 2015 at 7:03 pm
I don't have a problem with such promotions, though I generally do not contribute that way. There are plenty of established charities that I can donate to, and that is my preferred route.
I do get a bit annoyed when it is worded a certain way. The local Duane Reade stores will ask "would you like to donate to help save children?" That sounds like it's worded to make the person feel guilty for rejecting the opportunity. Better to ask "would you like to donate to the Children's Foundation (or whatever the charity is called)?" Manipulating people is what stores do, I guess, but when it's that blatant it just seems insulting.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
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RE: how do we as atheists feel about companies using customers to donate money?
June 8, 2015 at 7:04 pm
"As atheists?" Qua atheist, I have no opinion on that whatsoever. Qua atheist, I only have an opinion on one thing, and that is the existence of gods.
As for businesses asking for charity that way, I always refuse. I don't give to a charity unless I know what it is. In cases like this, I may have no idea what it is, so it is entirely possible that it is something I would not like. (I am a white man, and I don't care if anyone there believes I am an asshole.)
If you do not like businesses that ask for money in such ways, you can start writing letters to the companies, and stop going to their stores.
Now, I have a question for you. Do the people behind you really say "oh that cheap indian didn't donate" or are you making some sort of guess about their mental processes? If the latter, why do you believe that?
Frankly, if I saw someone not donate, I would form no opinion on why they did not donate, no matter what their skin color. It could be that someone cannot spare the money, it could be that the person does not approve of the charity, it could be the person is a cheap bastard, it could be something else.
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"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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RE: how do we as atheists feel about companies using customers to donate money?
June 8, 2015 at 7:10 pm
Yeah you guys, the best thing i can think of is this family guy response by stewie...he pretty much nails it on the head how i feel...but i always end up donating cus i feel weird when everyone in front of me and behind me says "sure!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHUXemcc0Kw
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RE: how do we as atheists feel about companies using customers to donate money?
June 8, 2015 at 7:16 pm
Pretty much goes for me too. I can't think of a time when I've been asked to donate in this way, but were I to be, I'd decline and say I don't donate publicly or something. Nor would I pass judgement on someone else for donating or not, much as I don't as a general rule in most other things. That's nothing to do with my being an atheist and everything to do with being a human trying to eke out an existence in society. I don't spy on my neighbours through the curtains either - I have far better things to occupy my mind.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: how do we as atheists feel about companies using customers to donate money?
June 8, 2015 at 7:17 pm
Who's we atheist supposed to mean anyway?
Last time I checked we were people and not a hive mind. Everyone will feel differently about it. If I got the feeling that the money goes in the right direction and doesn't land in some corporate cashbox, I might donate something if the cause appeals to me.
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RE: how do we as atheists feel about companies using customers to donate money?
June 8, 2015 at 7:20 pm
I say, "No, thank you" and go on with my day.
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RE: how do we as atheists feel about companies using customers to donate money?
June 8, 2015 at 7:56 pm
A lot of the companies match the donations, and a lot of the charities use the company rather than the company deciding to do a charity drive.
I encounter this every time I go PetSmart. They ask (on the credit card machine, no less) if you'd like to donate to a local shelter. I decline every time, but I give lots of time and money to the dog rescue I work with by fostering and transporting dogs and doing home visits. If there were a line, those people I'll never meet again can suck on it if they think less of me. But I'm glad PetSmart asks.
They, MacDonald's and the Ronald McDonald House charities, are their own charities.
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great
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