The Second Tenet of the Good and Moral Atheist is that of Purpose. To quote, “We each strive to better the world in the time we have.” One way to follow such a tenet is to give charitably to the less fortunate or the needy in the world.

       Some may dislike the concept of charity, welfare, or social insurance, considering it to be a handout. For certain types of charity, this may be true, especially where able-bodied adults are rewarded for not working. But most charities help those truly in need and without control over the situation they find themselves in: children, victims of spousal abuse, victims of natural disasters, victims of war or oppression, and so on. Each of us can choose which charity best expresses our desire to help make the world a better place.

       Occasionally you will hear arguments that Atheists or other non-believers are selfish, uncharitable people. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many great Atheists and skeptics have given substantially of their fortunes or their time to help others, while everyday Atheists give to charity and donate time just as other people do. Below we have listed some of the more notable charitable Atheist and Freethinkers.

       Freethinker Stephen Girard (1750-1831), a French immigrant to Philadelphia who started a shipping business while in his teens, adopted Philadelphia as his home, and was an ardent supporter of the new country of the United States. When yellow fever struck Philadelphia in 1793, many affluent citizens fled the city, including George Washington. Girard did not, and more than just give of his personal fortune, he commandeered the hospital and arranged for supply deliveries. For the afflicted, Girard also personally assisted in their care, nursing the sick, going into houses to find the weak, and even helping to wash those suffering from yellow fever despite the risk to his own health.

       After the epidemic, Girard gave generously to the hospitals, and even donated to some churches. When the war of 1812 broke out between the United States and England, the country was running quite low on money. The government asked citizens to buy bonds totaling $5 million to finance the fight against the British. Businessmen balked, and few were sold, until Girard stepped in and bought the entire $5 million himself. His act shored up confidence in the U.S., and other businessmen soon bought parts of his holdings. Girard used his fortune similarly for other financial crises of the government in the next decades, so strong was his faith in the U.S. On his death, Girard, who had family but no living children, freed his servant Hannah (with a stipend for her care in the form of an annuity) and bequeathed over 98% of his fortune, close to $8 million in 1831 dollars and probably the largest fortune in the U.S., to the community. His will included funds for hospitals, widows, the poor, the deaf, education, the police, the city of Philadelphia, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. But the largest part of Girard’s fortune was set aside to create an institution for schooling orphans—unfortunately following the racist and sexist mores of the time, his will specified white boys only—free from religious instruction. The executors of his will and the judiciary at the time altered his original intentions, and Girard College soon had mandatory religious participation, albeit by laypeople instead of clergy.

       Atheist James Lick (1796-1877) made his fortune buying land in San Francisco just before the gold rush. Before his death, he donated $3 million to a trust for helping California in scientific endeavors. The trust helped the University of California build an observatory and install the largest telescope in the world (at the time); the Lick observatory is still in use as of the writing of this book. Among his other instructions, he also requested that some of the trust be used to establish a home for elderly women.

       Philosophically, Atheist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) went further than most, stating that there is a moral obligation for the rich to give away all their riches beyond the needs for their families. Carnegie donated over $350 million in his lifetime (well over $100 billion if converted into 2006 dollars) to his trusts, which have supported projects such as public schools, libraries, child welfare centers, and efforts to achieve peace between nations.

       Although George Soros is well-known for his liberal political activities, his charitable work is impressive as well. Atheist Soros (born in 1930) started his large-scale philanthropy work in the late 1970s, when he gave funds to help black South African students to enroll at the University of Cape Town, as a protest against the country’s apartheid stance at the time. He began funding democracy initiatives in Eastern Europe—Soros is a Hungarian immigrant—in the 1980s, and in 1993 founded the Open Society Institute. OSI is a group dedicated to democratic reform and human rights, and supports efforts in the areas of healthcare, legal reform, reduction of government corruption, and education.

       Agnostic Warren Buffett (also born in 1930) will reportedly give most of his fortune—currently second only to that of Bill Gates, mentioned next—to his Buffett Foundation, a charitable trust, upon his death. The foundation supports boys and girls clubs, hospitals, minority-student scholarships, population control efforts, Planned Parenthood groups, and Omaha-area community charities.

       Agnostic and billionaire Bill Gates (born in 1955) has, through the Gates Foundation founded by him and his wife, given billions of dollars to charity. The foundation has an endowment of over $20 billion, and donates large sums to vaccination research and vaccination programs, educational scholarships for disadvantaged and minority students, library initiatives throughout the world, and efforts to improve the lives of people in the Pacific Northwest, including the homeless.

       Even ordinary people can make a huge difference if they put forth the effort. Dr. Indumati Parikh (1918-2004), a Humanist doctor who lived with her husband in a nice suburb of Mumbai (Bombay) in India, sold her house and moved to the impoverished section of the city to help poor women with contraception. Once there, she realized the desperate nature of the health care situation there, and set up an organization in 1964 called Streehitakarini (SHK). SHK covered many health care needs for poor women and their children, including vaccinations, nutrition, hygiene, contraception, and even literacy programs. Dr. Parikh, known as “Indu Tai” to the people of the slums, later started the Women of India Network (WIN), also dedicated to the health of poor women in India. WIN opened a series of health clinics and a hospital, WIN Central, to serve the needs of the millions of poor in Mumbai without access to basic health care. In addition to her activities in Mumbai, Dr. Parikh served as the president of the Indian Radical Humanist Association for several years. Dr. Parikh worked for the betterment of the poor in India and for funding for her WIN program up until her death in 2004.

       And in Las Vegas, the magic/comedy duo act of Penn & Teller—both avowed Atheists—have since 2003 organized an annual blood drive during the critical need time around Christmas, offering two free tickets to their show (2005 value: $150 per pair of tickets) for everyone who donates blood. Each year thousands of pints of blood are donated through this effort. The ever-sarcastic Penn Jillette, speaking for himself and his silent partner Teller, said of the drive, “You donate blood, you save a life and you get to see our stupid show.”

       As you can see, for hundreds of years Atheists and other Freethinkers have given their time, efforts, and money to charity in order to better the lot of their fellow man. Even today, there are Atheist-sponsored aid organizations. Recently, the Secular Humanist Aid and Relief Effort (SHARE, sponsored by the Council for Secular Humanism), the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and the IHEU’s Indian affiliate the Atheist Centre (founded by Gora) all directly collected significant donations for the victims of the December 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean. SHARE also collected many tens of thousands of dollars of donations for victims of the devastation from August 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. They were joined in their efforts in securing charitable donations from Atheists by the American Humanist Association and the Atheist Alliance, which also set up Hurricane Katrina charities. And unlike some religious charities, no aid donations to secular or Atheist organizations are diverted to “ministry” programs or non-aid items such as bibles, pews, rosaries and the like.

       There are also quite a few charities that have no religious affiliation whatsoever, and are wholly secular. Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, Oxfam, Save the Children, AmeriCares, the Nature Conservancy, and even the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are completely non-religious charities. Many Atheists give money and donate time to such noble organizations.

       To strive to better the world. That is our purpose. As Stephen Girard wrote, during the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793:

“…if I have the misfortune to succumb, I will have at least the satisfaction to have performed a duty which we all owe to each other.”

       Charity is a duty we owe, part of our purpose in life as Good and Moral Atheists.