Are Christians more generous?
A recent survey by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) shows that, contrary to what certain prominent atheists might suggest, Christianity (and this goes for other faiths, of course) is far from irrelevant in today’s Britain.
On Valentine’s Day (or Generosity Day, if you follow this blog!) the Richard Dawkins Foundation issued the results of a survey they had carried out in 2011, which they claimed showed Christianity to be a “spent force in the UK”.
But the latest CAF survey now reveals that “religious people donate more than twice as much money to charity as those without a faith”, and that only around 31% of religious donors’ generosity represents a direct contribution to religious activities – thus giving the lie to their being more concerned with self-perpetuation than with actually helping others.
Clearly, having a religious faith of some kind tends to make for a more philanthropic individual, and benefits society in general… as well as the believer themselves. (The latter is a reference to the many studies that have demonstrated a link between religiosity and health/long life.)
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