Pharyngula

Posted by: Prof MTH | December 8, 2008 8:38 AM

Theists attempt to own the "we are moral and atheists are not" argument. For example see this Catholic wackaloon.

IMO we non-theists need to do a better job marketing examples of moral non-theists. Theists are always at the ready to provide examples of (suppossedly) theistic moral exemplars and simultaneously bring-up Pol Pot and Stalin to falsely criticize non-theists.

Posted by: S.Scott | December 8, 2008 8:53 AM

I'm glad to see Red Cross on the list. :-)

Posted by: teacherninja | December 8, 2008 8:57 AM

That's a nice long list, but I've heard it's better to narrow your giving to just one or two to have the most effect. How to pick?

Posted by: clinteas | December 8, 2008 9:02 AM

Cannabinaceae,
love the nick !

IMO we non-theists need to do a better job marketing examples of moral non-theists.

I think that atheists have a marketing problem in general,but partly thats the fault of the media,because not only atheists,but any group of like-minded people these days gets portrayed in black and white and given a label.

So weve gotten our branding as hateful,amoral and love-impaired over the years,and its hard to get the message across that this is utter rubbish.

Posted by: deep | December 8, 2008 9:12 AM

Wow, this list blows mine out of the water. I'm glad someone was able to take that much time to benefit others. Also, become an organ donor. I can't stress enough how much that could help other people...and all you have to do is DIE. Easy enough, huh?

Posted by: Cannabinaceae | December 8, 2008 9:13 AM

clinteas,

I do like my hops (Humulus lupulus) -n-stuff. I thought about using "Hophead" as a 'nym but felt it was too, er, specific.

Hey, I forgot to check the list (and now I've really got to start appearing to work so I'm not going to go back and look!), but was NORML on there?

Posted by: MH | December 8, 2008 9:18 AM

Sorry to be pedantic, but there can be no atheist charities (nor theist charities) because organisations don't have the capacity to believe in anything. There are religious charities, and secular charities. Secular charities can be formed and run by theists or atheists, and the same goes for religious charities (though I don't expect any were formed by atheists).

If a charity doesn't have religious elements in its ethos, it is secular.

Posted by: Matt Heath | December 8, 2008 9:27 AM

Sorry to be pedantic

Posted by: CSN | December 8, 2008 9:30 AM

Two words: atheist buses. That is where my donation dollars will go for the near future.

Posted by: negentropyeater | December 8, 2008 9:48 AM

You'd expect that in the advanced economies of the OECD, at the begining of the 21st century, those who have much more than enough would pay enough taxes so that the community efficiently ensures that those who live in these countries and don't have enough to survive can at least survive.

It's unbeleavable, unacceptable, nonsensical, shameful that still today, with an average GDP per capita over $35,000 we still need charities to take care of the most defavorised in our own rich countries (NB: I'm not talking of the work done by charities in the emrging economies).

Also, the more religious a nation, the higher the need for charity. In the old pre-revolutionary model, the aristocrats and the bourgeois gave as charity to the Church that took care of running hospices and distribution operations. That helped to maintain the poor very poor and very religious. Hasn't changed much nowadays, charity is still mostly a tool of religions.

Posted by: Andy | December 8, 2008 10:07 AM

I don't have a suggestion for a list of charities, but I can recommend a specific one - The Ankizy Fund. This charity was founded by Dr. David Krause, a vertebrate paleontologist at Stony Brook University. The organization builds schools, digs wells, and provides medical and dental care in the forgotten corners of Madagascar where dinosaur fossils abound but access to education and health care do not.

As someone who has been a participant in many of the expeditions to Madagascar (and a tangential participant to the work of the Ankizy Fund), I can confidently say that the Ankizy Fund is doing a lot of good, one small step at a time. Many folks in more developed countries may not believe it, but the simple act of pulling an infected tooth can save a child's life. Furthermore, many of the children in these villages are the first in their families to get the gift of literacy.

Posted by: Ranson | December 8, 2008 10:27 AM

@ pixelsnake

James Randi has recommended "Plan USA", I believe. On another note, the JREF is probably getting my money this year.

This list is something I'd been looking for. I always liked the idea of the "Big Book/catalog" charities (Heifer international, etc.), especially when getting kids to help out, because it gave them something tangible to pick out and say "I helped with that". I dislike them because what you pick out usually doesn't matter -- they spend the money how they want. Understandable, but it still pisses me off a little. This gives me some other options to work with.

Posted by: Frank | December 8, 2008 10:29 AM

For our recent wedding, we asked for no gifts - just a donation to the guest's favorite worthy cause. We got some very interesting ones, including the Human Rights Campaign, Doctors Without Borders and the local food bank.

It's a great list but I'd add the Central Asia Foundation, which starts and funds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, open to boys and girls. www.ikat.org

Posted by: Marshall | December 8, 2008 1:11 PM

I don't like the question of "atheist charities"--there's barely any atheist groups period (far less than churches), why should there be atheist charities? I'd expect there would be as many atheist charities as there are lightbulb-designer charities, or ink chemist charities. A better question would be "how many non-theistic charities are there?" I can think a few right now: Red Cross, Salvation Army, Make the Road, American Heart Association...

Posted by: teacherninja | December 8, 2008 3:20 PM

@20 & 23:

Yeah, but not all of these groups are for the "underprivileged." Some are for civil rights, the environment, etc.

just sayin.

Posted by: Techskeptic | December 8, 2008 4:37 PM

marshal,

eh? The entire list I posted is exactly what you describe. They are non-theistic. There happen to be a few charities that promote atheism. I called the port atheist charities simply due to the direct meaning of atheist.

If I didnt want to piss of religionists, I would have called them secular.

Salvation army is a theistic organization. I was surprised to find ou tthat habitat for humanity is also.

if there are secular charities that you know about, please list them in the comments, I will include them next year after I research them.

Posted by: Robert | December 8, 2008 4:52 PM

Marshall at #28, look up the Salvation Army before you call them secular. They are an explicitly religious (Christian) organisation, founded in the great tradition that moderate religious groups such as Hamas follow today.

In their early days they used to smash up pubs, due to their intolerant attitude towards drinking. They've left their violent roots behind (they say), but they still practice intolerance and bigotry (they refuse to hire homosexuals, and claim anti-discrimination laws don't apply to them), they adopt cult-like rules (officers of the Army can not marry outside of the Army), they cheat on their taxes, and they protect and shelter children. Oops, I meant they protect and shelter child abusers, who prey on the homeless and abandoned children they take in. (See Wikipedia for the details)

Giving money to the Salvation Army is an explicit acceptance of all of the above.

Posted by: Cannabinaceae | December 8, 2008 5:21 PM

I tend to agree, but would simply call it sad that private donations are still needed, beyond taxes, to help the oppressed and underprivileged, or to protect ecoresources. It means that the memeosphere has yet to implement an effective way to provide a sufficiently benevolent cultural medium to the entire population.

I wouldn't call it surprising.

In the best of all plausible worlds, I'd like to be able to donate to verifiably excellent agencies that rescue the youngest of the unprivileged, or take ecoresources out of the real estate game as well as sue or otherwise impede oppressors who wantonly damage them.

Right now I'm mostly Nature Conservancy and Heifer Project, as proxies for my true desires. I doubt either of them are ideal, and H.P. has a problem (for me) with cuteness.

On a prior topic: pedantry that explicitly calls attention to itself smacks of self-righteousness; more effective pedants figure out a way to work pedantry into their discourse.

Posted by: Shelley Mountjoy | December 8, 2008 6:36 PM

www.atheistvolunteers.org is a great place to post your individual charitable efforts made without an invisible friend. :)

Posted by: pixelsnake | December 8, 2008 8:29 PM

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! I knew there had to be some out there, I obviously was just not asking the right people before :)

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