Sydney Atheists president, Anthony Englund, has written a letter to
the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald in response to the piece "Faith
No More Does Little Good for Society", SMH Opinion section 3 Feb 2009.
You can read the piece here, http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/faith-no-more-does-little-good-for-so... I should note it's by Dr John Dickson, director of the Centre for Public Christianity, so don't expect coherence or logic.
Our response letter was as follows.
Subject: Response to opinion piece "Faith No More Does Little Good for Society", SMH Opinion section 3 Feb 2009
It is pleasing to see that John Dickson recognises the
contribution that non-religious people make to society. As the Census
data makes clear, the number of non-religious people, and the size of
their collective contribution, continues to grow. There is a dawning
recognition that compassion, charity and service to your fellow human
being is not the exclusive province of those who believe in supernatural
beings. Rather, it is a responsibility that arises within all of us
naturally and that each of us takes to heart consciously. Through the
work we do supporting charities and within the community, Sydney
Atheists hopes to show that you can be "good without God". Ultimately,
it is the results of the work we do that counts, not whether the person
who performs it is a believer or not. We think there is plenty of room
for all of us to contribute.
Anthony Englund
President
Sydney Atheists Inc.
www.sydneyatheists.org
On a personal note, I'd like to point out another SMH article http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/st-vinnies-puts-the-cold-into-charity... This piece contains the wonderful quote Those
of us who thought the shop up the road was all about helping the poor
stand corrected. "The primary function of the society," said St Vincent
de Paul's lawyers, "is to inculcate the Catholic faith in its members." This
article from 2nd Jan is well worth a read and heartily disproves the
theory that religious people contribute to charity because they care.
It's all about new converts!
Originally posted by Nathan Dunn
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