I found this Slashdot poll to be quite informative. Based on the comments I’ve read there over the years, I have observed that Slashdot tends to skew heavily secular and libertarian as well as moderately atheist. So, when the regular poll asked about the amount of charitable giving that had been done in 2009, I expected the results to be somewhat on the light side given that it is been well-established that the irreligious are statistically less willing to give to others than are the religious.
I did not, however, expect to discover that Slashdot readers would prove to be such a complete collection of miserly bastards. 36 percent gave nothing to anyone. Another 20 percent gave less than $50. Less than 10 percent gave more than $2,000 throughout the entire course of the year.
Now, perhaps Slashdot readers are very low income, or perhaps they’re mostly religious Republicans. But, based on what I’ve observed, I suspect that this financial narcissism on their part points to one of the primary reasons there will never be organized irreligion without the use of force. Churches, synagogues, and mosques could not survive were it not for the voluntary donations of those who attend them. This is also a conclusive destruction idea of the notion that a truly secular society will necessarily be an improvement on a religious one. It’s no wonder that atheists tend to lean so heavily left. Those who are aware of their own unwillingness to lift a finger to help others in society naturally wouldn’t dare to trust in the willingness of others to do so in the absence of government force.
Now, don’t think for a second that I’m being naive here, much less some sort of Saint Largesse. I readily admit it will probably do no material good to give money to the shaggy man with the slurred speech or the emaciated girl. The odds are high that they’re just going to go off and score their intoxicant of choice. And I downright refuse to give anything to professional mendicants like the bloody organ grinders and immigrants who annoy shoppers at the grocery store. (Note to the “needy” immigrant family I saw the other day – your daily take will surely increase if you a) actually learn how to play those “authentic” native pipes, and, b) tell your little boy to stop playing his Nintendo DS in public.) But the man whose birth we celebrated yesterday was very clear how we are to treat those he describes as “the least” and it behooves all of us, Christian and non-Christian alike, to act on faith when we are asked for help by those who are clearly in need of it.