In response to news that Ricky Gervais is writing a new sit-com about an Atheist going to heaven, Jordan Sekulow the Director of Policy and International Operations at the American Center for Law & Justice writes:
“… what truly distinguishes atheists from religious people has to do with charitable work. Sure, plenty of atheists donate time and money to charities and there are probably many working at big charitable organizations. But atheists do not organize together to build hospitals and schools in the developing world. There is no atheist equivalent of Samaritan’s Purse, Operation Blessing or Catholic Charities and we do not see atheist organizations providing relief when disaster strikes.
“Why are atheists not doing this work? It has nothing to do with a lack of available resources … atheists do not have a God-given responsibility to help those in need. Religious people are required to do charity. The basic human rights that the free world has adopted as universal stem from Scripture.
“With people like Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens as two of the most well-known atheists in the Western world, it is easy to conclude that atheists have a serious disdain for all religious people (the majority of the world) rather than a mere difference in belief, think they are serious intellectuals and smarter than “childish” religious people because they reject a power higher than themselves, and spend an enormous amount of time researching, writing, and degrading a God they do not believe in. Looking in from the outside, it seems atheists are working overtime to justify their personal beliefs to a highly sceptical audience.
“This is not the best public relations campaign.
“Organized atheism only exists to promote a single belief. Religious organizations promote a single belief and an important worldview including the duty to help the poor and persecuted even if they do not share our religious belief or happen to be atheists themselves.”
Full Article: The Washington Post – On Faith
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