Atheist/Agnostic Charities

[gabeygoat]

Are there any? I would assume there are. Would it be a good idea, for the promotion of both Critical Thinking and Atheists/Agnostics? Is it completely unnecessary?
I've met people who don't believe in God(s), but feel obligated because this or that religious institution helped them out at bad times.
Also, I've met people who avoid charitable help, because the charity requires some sort of salvation or whatever.
Also, I've met people who say sure, religious groups kill each other and whatnot, but some of them feed people too, so it's ok.
I dunno, just kinda brain storming, and also curious about y'all's opinions.

 

[Brattus]

I'm an atheist and I always give to March of dimes and St. Jude.
I hold the belief that as soon as the majority of people realize that we don't need a God to solve our problems because we have each other, then the sooner the world as a whole will be a better place.

 

[Brian-M]

I don't know of any charities dedicated to promoting atheism or critical thinking.

But there are numerous secular charities (on other words, charities that are not run by religious organizations and have no religious-based agenda) such as UNICEF or Amnesty International.

 

[zooterkin]

I don't know of any charities dedicated to promoting atheism or critical thinking.

Have you looked at the top of the page?

 

[Nogbad]

Are there any? I would assume there are. Would it be a good idea, for the promotion of both Critical Thinking and Atheists/Agnostics? Is it completely unnecessary?
I've met people who don't believe in God(s), but feel obligated because this or that religious institution helped them out at bad times.
Also, I've met people who avoid charitable help, because the charity requires some sort of salvation or whatever.
Also, I've met people who say sure, religious groups kill each other and whatnot, but some of them feed people too, so it's ok.
I dunno, just kinda brain storming, and also curious about y'all's opinions.

Quite a lot of charities have no specific connection to religion. Cancer Research, the RNLI, British Heart Foundation, Oxfam, Medicins Sans Frontieres etc.,

On a separate note, I don't think there are many charities that have atheism/agnosticism as a central theme. By and large secular charities tend to be focused on whatever their primary mission is and give discussion regarding religion a body swerve.

 

[Brian-M]

Have you looked at the top of the page?

JREF is a nonprofit organization, but not a charity. (These are two different things.)

ETA: Although, I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing as a for-profit charity.

 

[zooterkin]

JREF is a nonprofit organization, but not a charity. (These are two different things.)

ETA: Although, I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing as a for-profit charity.

The JREF is registered under 501(c)(3), which means it can receive charitable donations. If it's not actually a charity (by whatever definition), it's as close as you can get without being one.

Contributions to the JREF are tax deductible for charitable purposes. The JREF is a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation.

 

[Wolfman]

To add to what others have said above: although I'm an atheist, I don't see why a charity would need to be explicitly atheist, nor what the benefit would be to making such a differentiation.

I run a charity organization (www.mosuoproject.org) that is certainly secular (in that I am an atheist, and we have no religious foundation), but we're not overtly atheist (in fact, the Mosuo members of the organization all believe in Tibetan Buddhism). But the work that we do is very worthwhile, and supported by quite a few atheists.

To me, the criteria for supporting or not supporting a particular organization should be what kind of work they do, and the reliability of that organization. If they are honest and reliable, and involved in an area that you are interested in and want to support, then support them.

There are plenty of honest and high quality religious and atheist organizations doing work to help others; and there are terrible, disreputable, dishonest religious and atheist organizations who deserve prison, not your money.

 

[arthwollipot]

Look for a charity that is signed up to a code of conduct that mandates a high level of transparency and accountability and includes a "no strings attached" clause. Australia has one (full disclosure - this is the organisation I work for). ACFID's Code of Conduct includes the following clause:

Funds and other resources designated for the purpose of aid and development will be used only for those purposes and will not be used to promote a particular religious adherence or to support a political party, or to promote a candidate or organisation affiliated to a particular party.

A charity that is signed up to a code of conduct that includes a similar clause should serve your purposes.

Currently ACFID's Code of Conduct has over 100 signatory organisations, including World Vision, Oxfam, CARE, the Fred Hollows Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, Marie Stopes, WaterAid... plus many overtly religious charities. Any one of them can be trusted to uphold the principles of the Code, which includes separation of religious activities from charitable activities.

YMMV. You'll need to do some research to find charities that you feel comfortable with.

 

[zooterkin]

This article is also worth a read; a review of a book on the subject of how to choose which charity to give to.

 

[Beerina]

Of course, the warm-and-fuzzy of the "selfless" meme has it's own agenda for world dominance. One of them is joining the secular-government meme to aid its growth in control of everyone.

And that government is deeply, deeply entrenched in taking control away from its historical competition, and former master, religion.

Hence the attempts to build up in the mind of potential future meme hosts the idea that religion bad, religionless government good.



Of course, "winning hearts and minds" by religion helping people is a long-established memetic spread mechanism. Note secular government's attempt to seize this ground.

 

[Ryokan]

I don't know of any charities dedicated to promoting atheism or critical thinking.

But there are numerous secular charities (on other words, charities that are not run by religious organizations and have no religious-based agenda) such as UNICEF or Amnesty International.

Not to mention the Red Cross.