Copied from roslarian2

[holly_evolving]

“The atheist,” a Chasidic rebbe once said, “serves God. How so? When a believer is told, ‘There are hungry people out there,’ he says, ‘God will feed them.’ When he is told, ‘There are homeless people in our midst,’ he says, ‘God will shelter them.’ When, however, an atheist is told, ‘There are hungry people out there,’ he says, ‘I must feed them.’ ‘Homeless people in our midst? I must house them.’ Turns out, the atheist does God’s work!”

Comments

[wolf-nd-shadows.livejournal.com]

I have to say there is one inaccuracy in that statement. Every religion has within it a call for charitable acts. Judaism calls for people to give 10%, The new Testament is filled with Jesus telling everyone they need to feed the poor to get into heaven, Islam has charity as one of its pillars, Buddhism and Hinduism see giving charity as a religious duty etc. When I worked in Africa, the two most successful charities were the Methodist Mission and the Catholic Charities. Hell, I've done my own charity work both abroad and in US, I constantly donate to good causes, and I am often the first to stand up when I see an injustice as you've occasionally see. Don't you see how those acts are influenced by my religiously based beliefs and values?
You know I love you as a person, and whether or not you personally believe in God(s/dess) is your personal choice which I respect. but I have to say all this because you are way to smart to fall into the simplistic "RELIGION BAD" stance. Currently, within religious circles, there is a huge debate/fight going on between the fundamentalists, the Red Letters, the liberals, the conservatives, and when you hear people preaching loudly about prejudice, isolationism, belligerence and anti-intellectualism, it's because they are trying very hard to outshout the religious people talking about peace, understanding and the universal love for man. The "RELIGION BAD" argument both sets up a me vs them polarization and also only acknowledges the negative side of the argument, and silences the people who might otherwise actually sway the minds of the large population of religious individuals and fix a lot of the problems within religion that are often correctly identified.

[holly-evolving.livejournal.com]

I just thought it was a neat quote.

And while, as the daughter of a church elder and the sister of a deacon, I'm quite familiar with religious doctrines of charity, I'm also quite familiar with the complacency of many religious people.

Calvinistic predestination is pretty much an excuse for the haves to point at the have-nots and laugh:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predestination_(Calvinism)

I am equally familiar with the complacency of many atheists.

The point of this quote, however, was to illustrate how those who don't believe in god (like me) can still do "god's work."

[professorbird.livejournal.com]

I remember hearing this as a child. Your observation that anyone is capable of doing "good deeds" is true. It has little to do with religion and lots to do with character, moral fiber, and understanding the need to help one another.

There is saying the "Ethics of our Fathers" which is a book of Talmudic wisdom.

Upon three things does the world stand: Upon the Torah (book of the law), upon hard work, and upon acts of loving kindness.

All the rest is commentary as the great Rabbis would say.

[wolf-nd-shadows.livejournal.com]

Well, I have always believed that just as there are many types of religious people, there are many types of atheists as well. I have met atheist who believe that their atheism grants them a moral pass on whatever they want, and I've met atheists who have very strong beliefs in a natural order that demands moral action. And frankly, the whole idea that atheists are inherently immoral is a side effect of the whole "religion good/bad" argument. Once dichotomized, the religious can easily make a blanket claim on the moral high ground, and stick the atheists with the other side of that dichotomy. When the dichotomy of the argument is broken, then people actually have to face the complexities of reality.

[holly-evolving.livejournal.com]

Also, while you are opposed to the "religion bad" idea, I have said before that that is exactly how I feel about it.

I wasn't posting the quote to open a debate. I was posting it because I like it.