I’m a little perplexed. Does quickshot think that atheists don’t put in time and money toward feeding children? Because we do.

Does he think the point of Skepticon is to feed starving children? Because it’s not. Which makes criticizing Skepticon for not feeding the poor about as sensible as criticizing Catholic Charities USA for not helping secure civil rights for the downtrodden. It’s simply not what they’re there to do. After reading quickshot’s comment, I imagine he makes a habit of going into a grocery store, grabbing a can of grape juice, and complaining to the nearest employee that the grape juice doesn’t pick up FM stations.

Not all “good causes” have feeding the starving as their goal. A quick peek at charity navigator will reveal several good causes from education (like Skepticon) to fighting for civil rights. What concerns me is how the presence of faith impacts the actual goals of various charities. Take a group like Doctors Without Borders. You can be certain that whatever money is spent on its programs will go directly toward alleviating suffering. Compare that to a group like Catholic Charities USA which has stated publicly that they see much of their charity work as a chance to evangelize. So while they feed the poor, how much money is diverted from the goal of feeding the poor to things like bibles?

Or even consider the adoption policy of Catholic Charities USA:

On March 10, O’Malley and leaders of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Boston announced that the agency would terminate its adoption work effective June 30, rather than continue to place children under the guardianship of homosexuals. The statement did not distinguish between gay and lesbian individuals and those in same-sex relationships. Hehir said “This is a difficult and sad day for Catholic Charities. We have been doing adoptions for more than 100 years.” Illinois. Following the legalization of same-sex civil unions effective June 1, 2011, Illinois required Catholic Charities, because it accepted public funds, to provide adoption and foster-care services to same-sex couples in the same manner that they serviced different-sex couples. Rather than comply, Catholic Charities closed most of its Illinois affiliates. They had provided such services for forty years.

The charity is now actually refusing to do the charitable work toward which they were dedicated because of the presence of their religion. Surely, quickshot, you’re jumping on groups like Catholic Charities USA for failing to do the work for which they exist to their full capacity. And surely you’re jumping on them long before you’re jumping on Skepticon for “failing” to do the work it never claimed to do.

But of course you aren’t. You would instead have us believe that educating the public about the same force that hinders the adoption efforts of Catholic Charities USA (and countless charities like them) is a waste.

Later quickshot said:

Bibles with food is much better than “thinking clearly” without food. Wouldn’t you agree?

Actually, I would. If a charity were set up to provide food and failed to provide food because they were too busy opposing religion, I’d definitely say that charity was failing in the most epic fashion. Of course, if a charity is set up to provide food and spends part of that money on bibles or opposing equal rights for gay people, I’d also say that charity is failing in the most complete way – and explicitly on account of religious influence. I can at least be consistent. Perhaps quickshot could tell us all the religious charities toward which he’s turned his rather unimpressive pen to show us that he’s capable of the same, and not just grinding an axe on my blog.

Because you know what’s even better than “bibles with food” for charities set up to provide food (which Skepticon is not)? Food for more people. The moment they purchase a bible instead of an orange, they have done less charity than they otherwise would. Yet quickshot doesn’t seem bothered by this. In fact, he seems to think the greater problem is a group which is not established to feed the hungry not feeding the hungry, instead of groups that are established to feed the hungry spending that money on proselytizing.

As Sam Harris once put it:

The worst problem with religious morality is that it often causes good people to act immorally, even while they attempt to alleviate the suffering of others. In Africa, for instance, certain Christians preach against condom use in villages where AIDS is epidemic, and where the only information about condoms comes from the ministry. They also preach the necessity of believing in the divinity of Jesus Christ in places where religious conflict between Christians and Muslims has led to the deaths of millions. Secular volunteers don’t spread ignorance and death in this way. A person need not be evil to preach against condom use in a village decimated by AIDS; he or she need only believe a specific faith-based moral dogma. In such cases we can see that religion can cause good people to be much less good than they might otherwise be.

Religion is the corrupting source here, quickshot. And, frankly, that’s why educational charities like Skepticon exist: for people like you who are so eat up with faith that they can’t tell the difference between an educational charity and a charity set up to feed the poor that fails on account of religion.

Actually, I’m not done yet.

Even though Skepticon is an educational charity, we’ve monetized our youtube account and have sent all the proceeds to Kiva. The money has been used to help pay a patient’s cancer treatment bill as well as to help fund an HIV testing center in Africa for a whole year. This is above and beyond what Skepticon was established to do.

Also last year, many of the attendees went next door to a meal-packing charity offering to help. Once it was realized they were atheists, they were turned away by the Christians running the charity. So again, you have a less effective charity because of religion – even as the atheists were wanting to help for free.

And this year there will be a blood drive at Skepticon. Again, not the purpose of the charity, but going above and beyond because helping the world is an awesome thing to do, not because we’re trying to get in good with some celestial club-owner.