You’d think some of those really intelligent, highly educated “brights” might have thought twice about how this little publicity stunt was going to backfire on them:
Your choice on May 3rd: participate in National Prayer Day or actually do some good by donating blood.
I can’t donate any longer – have spent too much time in the UK. But I have donated over 5 gallons of blood in my lifetime (I used to go every two months). It can be annoying, but unlike annoying prayer coming from the “we’re more holy than thou” types, it actually makes a difference in someone’s life – frequently in several people’s lives.
That might be an effective argument, except for the fact that tends to underline how atheists can’t so much be bothered to help other people unless they’re inspired to do so by religion.
And then, there’s this inconvenient little truth: Religious people also donate twice as much blood and are more likely to “behave in compassionate ways towards strangers,” [Syracuse University Professor Arthur] Brooks said.
You see, those who are willing to pray for others are also much more likely to take concrete steps in aiding others. It’s not an either/or thing, and it should be apparent that at a bare minimum, they are at least aware that those unfortunate others exist.
And why in the name of St. Darwin should an atheist interfere with the course of Natural Selection on behalf of a competing gene collection? Aiding the weak and sickly is crime against human evolution!