News of the day

 Churches are charitable organisations, donations to churches are tax deductible, philanthropy is not altruistic, tithing's are often obligatory. Of course church goers give more to charity because they give to the church, if Pubs and Bars were charities then beer drinkers, alcoholics and sots would donate more to charity.  

 

 

As I have said, I do not believe that donating to a church should be regarded as a charity donation, I do not believe that many of the non-profit organisations that have charity status should have that status and top of my list would be religious organisations. Only a fraction of the money donated to religious organisations is used for charitable purposes, so no, I do not view using the money to build new churches with lofty spires topped with gleaming golden crosses for the glorification of the congregation that worships in it as being a "good" work even if the intentions of the donator was for the money to be used for good works.

The T wrote: Dean, why do you get so upset with this particular link to a stupid study when several stupid studies are constantly linked to here in PA? Only because this one doesn't fit the anti-religious view? (and please remember I'm not a follower of any religion).

As I said - it did not get me "so upset", quite the opposite - it amused me on several levels just as most of the stupid studies that are linked here do - leafing back through this thread will reveal that I've poked a stick at many of them, but none have ever got me upset, incuding this one.  What also amused me about this one was your presumption that us liberals would not link it, that it would offend us in some way, so when I pointed out the little annomily that religious peoples donations to their own churches get counted as their charitable donations as thus that makes them more philanthropic than the rest of us, it amused me, and it amused me that you would then presume that I was "so upset" about it because that would fit your preconcieved assumption that I would be upset about it.

The T wrote: Who determines what charities are good and which ones are not?

Not the sharpest of comments Teo. We all do - that's why we do not donate to every charity that exists. If we viewed all charities as equal then we'd donate to them equally. It would be irresponsible of us to assume that each charity uses the money we donate to them wisely or that the work they are doing is for the greater good and it would be naive to assume that every dollar you donate to a charity is used for the purpose it is collected for. For example The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association in the UK collects £66 million per year in donations and spends $46 million in providing Guide Dogs and other mobilty services to blind people, 70% of your donation is converted into a Golden Labrador that can help a blind person cross the road safley (and I consider that to be a damn good conversion ratio),  what they do not tell you is they also have £200 million in assets (including over £100 million in investments) - I'm not saying that is bad or they are doing wrong - it seems to me they are doing very right, but it also says to me there may be other charities that could be in greater need of my donation. Religions on the otherhand use a small fraction of the money they collect for charitable work, and in some cases that donation is not voluntary (it's a membership or attendance fee or as I said earlier in some cases it's income taxation by another name: tithing).

 

We don't need to invent some nepharious or highly dubious charity as example, or charities that go against (y)our political, sociological or philisophical viewpoint. Just because an organisation is granted Charity status it does not automatically mean they are doing good works or works we agree with.

Equality 7-2521 wrote: ^I would say each individual chooses. There are certainly some bad charities. I'm not counting a donation towards the church of scientology as a donation towards the doing of good in the world.

But some do.

Equality 7-2521 wrote: As a tangential question Dean, do you consider social programs to be altruistic?

I do not believe in altruism. But to answer your question - no, I don't think social programs are a altruistic, they are many other things but not altruistic.