Atheists More Motivated By Compassion than the Faithful

Atheists More Motivated by Compassion than the Faithful​

My Take​

I can only say that motivation for different reasons factors greatly. Those who are deeply religious tend to exercise compassion for "spiritual" reasons as opposed to simply do it because there's a sense of empathy for people who are less or in need at the moment. But, it's not to say that religious individuals aren't genuine people, nor misguided.

 

I think studies like these are misleading.

I always figure that Atheists look at the world as "this is all we get" so they feel a urgency to make peoples lives better in the here and now. A tragic life seems sadder to them, because they believe that there is no other chance for happiness or salvation other than the life we have now.

Were as Religious people want whats best for people as well, but they believe that there is a "safety net" of God, to look after the people that humanity wasn't able to care for. So other peoples suffering feels less tragic, because those people have the hope to find happiness in a new existence.

So, there isn't any less or more compassion between Atheists and Religious people. Instead it is all a matter of perspective.

 

Atheism simply means lacking the belief in a god or gods. But that doesn't mean that atheists can't be spiritual. There are atheists that do believe in a secondary existence and dualism in that respect. God isn't a necessity in the equation of spiritual concepts.

The article is spot on, however, regarding the motivations as to why religious people exercise compassion. Rather than imagining themselves in the other person's shoes, they are more likely to act on compassion based on doctrine and the words of a belief system, which begs the question of how genuine a religious person is, honesty wise.

 

Fair assesment. I generally find a lot of atheists to be insufferable know it alls but thats no different from fanatics of any other group. I would like to see statistics on who really gives more. Could be interesting.

 

You live in small area of New York, so your assessment and bias on the matter doesn't reflect the bigger population when looking at the numbers from a world perspective.

Instead of looking how much a person gives, you have to observe the reasons for it and quite frankly, the proof is in the pudding when you have religious organizations less inclined to do it because of emotion and rather based more on their faith. When's the last time you actually observed that? Perhaps not ever.

 

http://dailycaller.com/2010/09/23/surprise-conservatives-are-more-generous-than-liberals/

 

That's irrelevant. We're not talking conservative vs. liberal at all here though. We're talking about Atheists vs. Religious people. And they don't belong to one political ideology either.

 

True. There are atheist conservatives out there. Although from what I've seen they're more inclined to keep it to themselves for obvious reasons.

 

The atheist community is like the gays as we'll never know how many of us there really are because of comfortable closets..... with wifi n shit.