Atheists, Pastafarians Make News for… Our Generosity?!

I’ve mentioned before how atheists are atop the leaderboard at Kiva — a website that “allows people to lend money via the Internet to microfinance institutions in developing countries which in turn lend the money to small businesses…” It’s a wonderful charity.

The 5,000+ members of the Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious group have given over $763,000 in loans!

And Kiva Christians are in second 🙂

But here’s a fun twist: If you sort by category, by “Religious Congregations,” who sits atop the leaderboard then?

Not Kiva Mormons. They’re in 3^rd.

Not Catholic Kiva. They’re in 2^nd.

In 1^st, members of The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster! The 600+ members have loaned over $82,000.

USA Today‘s Cathy Lynn Grossman has taken notice:

To really help “the last and the least” do you have to focus on “the lost” as well?

Maybe not — if you go by the statistics at Kiva, the international internet person-to-person micro-lending site where it appears that folks with no religion are spirited participants in efforts to uplift the world’s poorest.

Bobby Henderson is trying to get his team to crack the $100,000 mark.

Here’s hoping he reaches that goal!

Bacopa

What if Kiva ends up ending world poverty? While I have become convinced that Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is slightly more fiction than fact, I think government aid is largely a scam to enrich corporations within the donor nation and that it focuses on inappropriately sized projects that often disrupt local economies and merely serves to enrich the elites within the receiving nations.

Kiva seems different. It focuses on small scale projects. It perfectly fits Freeman Dyson’s comments about “On Being the Right Size”. Kiva operates on too small a scale to benefit the patron or warlord.
jemand

that leaderboard has as default “number of loans”

In amount of loans pastafarians are actually second to Bahai, and the UU church is third.
ChimaeraLaurie

I was just going to point out what jemand said. If you sort by Total Loaned, Kiva Baha’is has loaned the most with $124,150.00. We will catch up, though! RAmen.
Jude

I didn’t know about the teams, but I joined my total of 25 loans to the atheist team today.
ckitching

The author of that piece in USA Today couldn’t help but question our goodwill at the end there.

DO YOU THINK… giving can be faith-free and still have “values?”

Shameful.
Notatheist

I’m not proud of this fact, but in truth, the religious far out give the nonreligious. Study after study confirms it. Part of me thinks that we realize that by voting left we are giving. We’d just prefer that our charity not be contingent upon prostylization or end up lining the pockets or someone who couldn’t possibly use or need it.
Jim

I donated my first $25 a few weeks ago and gave credit to the Atheist team. Kiva is pretty awesome, and atheists kick ass for being moral with no coercion!
Jim

Ooh, just thought of a wicked idea. Someone needs to create Kiva Catholics, Kiva Baptists, etc. and start dividing up the Christian vote. I kinda hate that ours is divided between atheists and pastafarians, but what can you do.
Phil E. Drifter

That’s because all the religitards are giving their donations to the catholic church so the catholic church can relocate pedophile priests to new parishes to keep them protected.