Why Don't Atheists Contribute To Society?

[the_human_being]

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Christian churches gathered up water and toiletries and other basic human needs and handed out to the storm victims. When Ivan hit, they did the same thing. It has happened over and over whenever their has been a natural disaster. Even individual families who have fell victim to home fires, floods, etc., have been helped by the Church.

Where are the atheists in all this?

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

Jesus was a wise man.

I thought you were the very one cursing him just a couple of days ago.

 

[sealybobo]

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Christian churches gathered up water and toiletries and other basic human needs and handed out to the storm victims. When Ivan hit, they did the same thing. It has happened over and over whenever their has been a natural disaster. Even individual families who have fell victim to home fires, floods, etc., have been helped by the Church.

Where are the atheists in all this?

Those free from faith do indeed contribute in the event of natural disasters and the like, that you are ignorant of their contributions doesn't mean the contributions weren't made.

Only had two thus far that could actually say they did that weren't getting paid while they were doing it.

Most of the theists on this board right now as we speak did zero for Katrina. What do you have to say about them?

More Christians did NOTHING than did something. Or are you suggesting 51% or more of all American Christians lent a hand during Katrina? So consider that even though some theists helped, many more did not.

And I don't count praying because two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer.

 

[percysunshine]

"Why Don't Atheists Contribute To Society?"


Sloth?

.

 

[sealybobo]

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Christian churches gathered up water and toiletries and other basic human needs and handed out to the storm victims. When Ivan hit, they did the same thing. It has happened over and over whenever their has been a natural disaster. Even individual families who have fell victim to home fires, floods, etc., have been helped by the Church.

Where are the atheists in all this?

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

Jesus was a wise man.

I thought you were the very one cursing him just a couple of days ago.

Its so funny you guys claim we curse, hate or reject your god. We just don't believe in gods. Jesus sounded like a great man. It's christians who suck.

Notice Jesus never told the Jews to go start a new religion? He simply told them they were being hypocrites. He would say the same thing to modern day Christians.

 

[sealybobo]

"Why Don't Atheists Contribute To Society?"


Sloth?

.

I wish Christians would stop worrying about gays and focus on their own flaws.

How many christians do we all know that have a problem with some or all of these?

wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.

 

[the_human_being]

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Christian churches gathered up water and toiletries and other basic human needs and handed out to the storm victims. When Ivan hit, they did the same thing. It has happened over and over whenever their has been a natural disaster. Even individual families who have fell victim to home fires, floods, etc., have been helped by the Church.

Where are the atheists in all this?

Those free from faith do indeed contribute in the event of natural disasters and the like, that you are ignorant of their contributions doesn't mean the contributions weren't made.

Only had two thus far that could actually say they did that weren't getting paid while they were doing it.

Most of the theists on this board right now as we speak did zero for Katrina. What do you have to say about them?

More Christians did NOTHING than did something. Or are you suggesting 51% or more of all American Christians lent a hand during Katrina? So consider that even though some theists helped, many more did not.

And I don't count praying because two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer.

I agree completely

 

[NYcarbineer]

Since hurricanes are legally considered 'acts of God', I would think that it would be God's job to fix the mess.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Christian churches gathered up water and toiletries and other basic human needs and handed out to the storm victims. When Ivan hit, they did the same thing. It has happened over and over whenever their has been a natural disaster. Even individual families who have fell victim to home fires, floods, etc., have been helped by the Church.

Where are the atheists in all this?

Those free from faith do indeed contribute in the event of natural disasters and the like, that you are ignorant of their contributions doesn't mean the contributions weren't made.

Only had two thus far that could actually say they did that weren't getting paid while they were doing it.

This doesn't make any sense, two 'what' thus far, those free from faith?


If so you're obviously unaware of the fact that this fails as a hasty generalization fallacy, as 'two' are not 'representative' of 'all,' and there's no way you can determine who has or has not contributed, regardless their religious beliefs, or lack thereof.

 

[the_human_being]

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Christian churches gathered up water and toiletries and other basic human needs and handed out to the storm victims. When Ivan hit, they did the same thing. It has happened over and over whenever their has been a natural disaster. Even individual families who have fell victim to home fires, floods, etc., have been helped by the Church.

Where are the atheists in all this?

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

Jesus was a wise man.

I thought you were the very one cursing him just a couple of days ago.

Its so funny you guys claim we curse, hate or reject your god. We just don't believe in gods. Jesus sounded like a great man. It's christians who suck.

Notice Jesus never told the Jews to go start a new religion? He simply told them they were being hypocrites. He would say the same thing to modern day Christians.

I have to disagree this time. My thread was meant to attract real dyed-in-the-wool atheists but instead it appears I attracted a bunch of old right-wing Conservative religious zealots. They're probably old white-haired Republicans. All they do is spout scripture and attempt to change the OP to something about God. Sure beats me.

 

[sealybobo]

Since hurricanes are legally considered 'acts of God', I would think that it would be God's job to fix the mess.

I just realized that is exactly what they call them. Acts of God! We need to stop calling them that.

An act of God is a legal term for events outside human control, such as sudden natural disasters, for which no one can be held responsible.

Not to be confused with Divine Intervention

Divine intervention is a term for a miracle caused by a deity's active involvement in the human world.

 

[the_human_being]

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Christian churches gathered up water and toiletries and other basic human needs and handed out to the storm victims. When Ivan hit, they did the same thing. It has happened over and over whenever their has been a natural disaster. Even individual families who have fell victim to home fires, floods, etc., have been helped by the Church.

Where are the atheists in all this?

Those free from faith do indeed contribute in the event of natural disasters and the like, that you are ignorant of their contributions doesn't mean the contributions weren't made.

Only had two thus far that could actually say they did that weren't getting paid while they were doing it.

This doesn't make any sense, two 'what' thus far, those free from faith?


If so you're obviously unaware of the fact that this fails as a hasty generalization fallacy, as 'two' are not 'representative' of 'all,' and there's no way you can determine who has or has not contributed, regardless their religious beliefs, or lack thereof.

Works for me.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Since hurricanes are legally considered 'acts of God', I would think that it would be God's job to fix the mess.

I just realized that is exactly what they call them. Acts of God! We need to stop calling them that.

An act of God is a legal term for events outside human control, such as sudden natural disasters, for which no one can be held responsible.

Not to be confused with Divine Intervention

Divine intervention is a term for a miracle caused by a deity's active involvement in the human world.

True story and one of my favorites -

When Mike Huckabee was governor of Arkansas he once tried to end the use of the term 'act of God' to describe a natural disaster because he didn't think it was right to associate God with such bad events.

...maybe I can find the link...

 

[alang1216]

Were you there? Did you hand out water or do anything at all yourself?

I don't recall making any such claim. First, I'm not an atheist (I'm agnostic) and second, I don't live near LA. Not that it matters but I did contribute some relief $ and directly supported the relief effort through my professional work.

Were you not getting paid?

You asked if I assisted not if I benefited. As it happens, both are true, and no I did not give everything I owned to the victims. Did you?

Hardly. I'm not entirely stupid. Was I supposed to? Who made such a rule? You?

Actually it was Jesus: Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." Matthew 22

Go back and read it and try to understand the conversation and with whom Christ was having the conversation. He gave no such instruction to the Church at large. He was having a conversation with a man who had expressed a desire to become one of the disciples, but please don't allow your own lack of knowledge to get in your way.

Are you a follower of Christ or not? If you are, it is you who those words are for. Don't confuse my lack of faith with a lack of knowledge. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you realize there was no Christian religion in Jesus' lifetime, let alone a Church. (Jesus lived and died a Jew. If there was a Christian Church Jesus probably would not have been a member.)

I have to admire how you hide behind the "church" and don't take responsibility for your own actions but feel free to criticize the actions of others.

 

[the_human_being]

Were you there? Did you hand out water or do anything at all yourself?

I don't recall making any such claim. First, I'm not an atheist (I'm agnostic) and second, I don't live near LA. Not that it matters but I did contribute some relief $ and directly supported the relief effort through my professional work.

Were you not getting paid?

You asked if I assisted not if I benefited. As it happens, both are true, and no I did not give everything I owned to the victims. Did you?

Hardly. I'm not entirely stupid. Was I supposed to? Who made such a rule? You?

Actually it was Jesus: Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." Matthew 22

Go back and read it and try to understand the conversation and with whom Christ was having the conversation. He gave no such instruction to the Church at large. He was having a conversation with a man who had expressed a desire to become one of the disciples, but please don't allow your own lack of knowledge to get in your way.

Are you a follower of Christ or not? If you are, it is you who those words are for. Don't confuse my lack of faith with a lack of knowledge. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you realize there was no Christian religion in Jesus' lifetime, let alone a Church. (Jesus lived and died a Jew. If there was a Christian Church Jesus probably would not have been a member.)

I have to admire how you hide behind the "church" and don't take responsibility for your own actions but feel free to criticize the actions of others.

Well, you are absolutely wrong this time. You are simply trying to confuse terms. Christ was addressing a man who was petitioning him to let him become one of the disciples. That is the truth as anyone who understands what the conversation taking place was about. I am a Christian. I am not and was never one of Christ's apostles.

Here's another one for you. Where in the whole of the Bible does it instruct me as a member of the Church to go out and preach or try to save anyone at all? Please post the scripture if you think I am supposed to either preach to you or try to save your soul.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Since hurricanes are legally considered 'acts of God', I would think that it would be God's job to fix the mess.

I just realized that is exactly what they call them. Acts of God! We need to stop calling them that.

An act of God is a legal term for events outside human control, such as sudden natural disasters, for which no one can be held responsible.

Not to be confused with Divine Intervention

Divine intervention is a term for a miracle caused by a deity's active involvement in the human world.

True story and one of my favorites -

When Mike Huckabee was governor of Arkansas he once tried to end the use of the term 'act of God' to describe a natural disaster because he didn't think it was right to associate God with such bad events.

...maybe I can find the link...

lol, see I wasn't kidding:

Governor Won t Sign an Acts of God Bill - New York Times

 

[the_human_being]

Since hurricanes are legally considered 'acts of God', I would think that it would be God's job to fix the mess.

I just realized that is exactly what they call them. Acts of God! We need to stop calling them that.

An act of God is a legal term for events outside human control, such as sudden natural disasters, for which no one can be held responsible.

Not to be confused with Divine Intervention

Divine intervention is a term for a miracle caused by a deity's active involvement in the human world.

True story and one of my favorites -

When Mike Huckabee was governor of Arkansas he once tried to end the use of the term 'act of God' to describe a natural disaster because he didn't think it was right to associate God with such bad events.

...maybe I can find the link...

lol, see I wasn't kidding:

Governor Won t Sign an Acts of God Bill - New York Times

And that has exactly what bearing upon either me personally or the OP?

 

[sealybobo]

Since hurricanes are legally considered 'acts of God', I would think that it would be God's job to fix the mess.

I just realized that is exactly what they call them. Acts of God! We need to stop calling them that.

An act of God is a legal term for events outside human control, such as sudden natural disasters, for which no one can be held responsible.

Not to be confused with Divine Intervention

Divine intervention is a term for a miracle caused by a deity's active involvement in the human world.

True story and one of my favorites -

When Mike Huckabee was governor of Arkansas he once tried to end the use of the term 'act of God' to describe a natural disaster because he didn't think it was right to associate God with such bad events.

...maybe I can find the link...

lol, see I wasn't kidding:

Governor Won t Sign an Acts of God Bill - New York Times

I find it amazing today that theists still believe tornado's or hurricanes are god punishing us for gays or abortion.

Miracles have not been demonstrated to occur. The existence of a miracle would pose logical problems for belief in a god which can supposedly see the future and began the universe with a set of predefined laws.

Most alleged miracles can be explained as statistically unlikely occurrences. For example, one child surviving a plane crash that kills two hundred others is not a miracle, just as one person winning the lottery is not. In the absence of any empirical evidence, all other claims can be dismissed as the result of magical thinking, misattribution, credulity, hearsay and anecdote. Eye-witness testimony and anecdotal accounts are, by themselves, not reliable or definitive forms of proof for such extraordinary claims.

Divine intervention claims most often concern systems and events for which we have poor predictive capabilities, for example, weather, sports, health and social/economic interactions. Such claims are rarely made in relation to those things we can accurately predict and test e.g. the motion of celestial bodies, boiling point of water and pull of gravity. If a god is constantly intervening in the universe it supposedly created, then it is with such ambiguity as to appear completely indistinguishable from normal background chance.

Theists often fail to adequately apportion blame when claims of their particular god’s ‘infinite mercy’ or ‘omnibenevolence’ involve sparing a few lives in a disaster, or recovery from a debilitating disease – all of which their god would ultimately be responsible for inflicting if it existed.

Elite athletes make first place, strange shapes appear on toast and some people narrowly escape death, but amputated limbs never regrow, mountains never move and food never spontaneously appears in front of the hundreds of children that starve to death each hour.

 

[the_human_being]

Since hurricanes are legally considered 'acts of God', I would think that it would be God's job to fix the mess.

I just realized that is exactly what they call them. Acts of God! We need to stop calling them that.

An act of God is a legal term for events outside human control, such as sudden natural disasters, for which no one can be held responsible.

Not to be confused with Divine Intervention

Divine intervention is a term for a miracle caused by a deity's active involvement in the human world.

True story and one of my favorites -

When Mike Huckabee was governor of Arkansas he once tried to end the use of the term 'act of God' to describe a natural disaster because he didn't think it was right to associate God with such bad events.

...maybe I can find the link...

lol, see I wasn't kidding:

Governor Won t Sign an Acts of God Bill - New York Times

I find it amazing today that theists still believe tornado's or hurricanes are god punishing us for gays or abortion.

Miracles have not been demonstrated to occur. The existence of a miracle would pose logical problems for belief in a god which can supposedly see the future and began the universe with a set of predefined laws.

Most alleged miracles can be explained as statistically unlikely occurrences. For example, one child surviving a plane crash that kills two hundred others is not a miracle, just as one person winning the lottery is not. In the absence of any empirical evidence, all other claims can be dismissed as the result of magical thinking, misattribution, credulity, hearsay and anecdote. Eye-witness testimony and anecdotal accounts are, by themselves, not reliable or definitive forms of proof for such extraordinary claims.

Divine intervention claims most often concern systems and events for which we have poor predictive capabilities, for example, weather, sports, health and social/economic interactions. Such claims are rarely made in relation to those things we can accurately predict and test e.g. the motion of celestial bodies, boiling point of water and pull of gravity. If a god is constantly intervening in the universe it supposedly created, then it is with such ambiguity as to appear completely indistinguishable from normal background chance.

Theists often fail to adequately apportion blame when claims of their particular god’s ‘infinite mercy’ or ‘omnibenevolence’ involve sparing a few lives in a disaster, or recovery from a debilitating disease – all of which their god would ultimately be responsible for inflicting if it existed.

Elite athletes make first place, strange shapes appear on toast and some people narrowly escape death, but amputated limbs never regrow, mountains never move and food never spontaneously appears in front of the hundreds of children that starve to death each hour.

Actually, I haven't seen any such posts as you are claiming here on this thread.

 

[sealybobo]

Were you there? Did you hand out water or do anything at all yourself?

I don't recall making any such claim. First, I'm not an atheist (I'm agnostic) and second, I don't live near LA. Not that it matters but I did contribute some relief $ and directly supported the relief effort through my professional work.

Were you not getting paid?

You asked if I assisted not if I benefited. As it happens, both are true, and no I did not give everything I owned to the victims. Did you?

Hardly. I'm not entirely stupid. Was I supposed to? Who made such a rule? You?

Actually it was Jesus: Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." Matthew 22

Go back and read it and try to understand the conversation and with whom Christ was having the conversation. He gave no such instruction to the Church at large. He was having a conversation with a man who had expressed a desire to become one of the disciples, but please don't allow your own lack of knowledge to get in your way.

Are you a follower of Christ or not? If you are, it is you who those words are for. Don't confuse my lack of faith with a lack of knowledge. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you realize there was no Christian religion in Jesus' lifetime, let alone a Church. (Jesus lived and died a Jew. If there was a Christian Church Jesus probably would not have been a member.)

I have to admire how you hide behind the "church" and don't take responsibility for your own actions but feel free to criticize the actions of others.

Well, you are absolutely wrong this time. You are simply trying to confuse terms. Christ was addressing a man who was petitioning him to let him become one of the disciples. That is the truth as anyone who understands what the conversation taking place was about. I am a Christian. I am not and was never one of Christ's apostles.

Here's another one for you. Where in the whole of the Bible does it instruct me as a member of the Church to go out and preach or try to save anyone at all? Please post the scripture if you think I am supposed to either preach to you or try to save your soul.

I guess you are right. He told his disciples to go spread the word. He didn't tell them to tell you to do it too technically. But I would guess Chistians want to do what Jesus asked so they spread the word.

 

[the_human_being]

Were you there? Did you hand out water or do anything at all yourself?

I don't recall making any such claim. First, I'm not an atheist (I'm agnostic) and second, I don't live near LA. Not that it matters but I did contribute some relief $ and directly supported the relief effort through my professional work.

Were you not getting paid?

You asked if I assisted not if I benefited. As it happens, both are true, and no I did not give everything I owned to the victims. Did you?

Hardly. I'm not entirely stupid. Was I supposed to? Who made such a rule? You?

Actually it was Jesus: Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." Matthew 22

Go back and read it and try to understand the conversation and with whom Christ was having the conversation. He gave no such instruction to the Church at large. He was having a conversation with a man who had expressed a desire to become one of the disciples, but please don't allow your own lack of knowledge to get in your way.

Are you a follower of Christ or not? If you are, it is you who those words are for. Don't confuse my lack of faith with a lack of knowledge. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you realize there was no Christian religion in Jesus' lifetime, let alone a Church. (Jesus lived and died a Jew. If there was a Christian Church Jesus probably would not have been a member.)

I have to admire how you hide behind the "church" and don't take responsibility for your own actions but feel free to criticize the actions of others.

Well, you are absolutely wrong this time. You are simply trying to confuse terms. Christ was addressing a man who was petitioning him to let him become one of the disciples. That is the truth as anyone who understands what the conversation taking place was about. I am a Christian. I am not and was never one of Christ's apostles.

Here's another one for you. Where in the whole of the Bible does it instruct me as a member of the Church to go out and preach or try to save anyone at all? Please post the scripture if you think I am supposed to either preach to you or try to save your soul.

I guess you are right. He told his disciples to go spread the word. He didn't tell them to tell you to do it too technically. But I would guess Chistians want to do what Jesus asked so they spread the word.

Exactly. Christians are to set an example by living a life pleasing to God. They were never commanded to either preach or try to save anyone's soul. The Bible plainly states that it is God himself who does the calling - not man. God has a way of getting one's attention as He illustrated with Paul.