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Religion In US 'Worth More Than Google and Apple Combined' (theguardian.com)
A new study says religion in the United States is worth $1.2 trillion per year. Not only is that equivalent to the 15th largest national economy in the world, but it's more than the combined revenues of the top 10 technology companies in the U.S., including Apple, Amazon and Google. The study, "The Socioeconomic Contributions of Religion To American Society: An Empirical Analysis," was conducted by Brian J. Grim from Georgetown University and Melissa E. Grim from Newseum Institute. The Guardian reports: The Socioeconomic Contributions of Religion to American Society: An Empirical Analysis calculated the $1.2 trillion figure by estimating the value of religious institutions, including healthcare facilities, schools, daycare and charities; media; businesses with faith backgrounds; the kosher and halal food markets; social and philanthropic programs; and staff and overheads for congregations. Co-author Brian Grim said it was a conservative estimate. More than 344,000 congregations across the U.S. collectively employ hundreds of thousands of staff and buy billions of dollars worth of goods and services. More than 150 million Americans, almost half the population, are members of faith congregations, according to the report. Although numbers are declining, the sums spent by religious organizations on social programs have tripled in the past 15 years, to $9 billion. The report points to analysis by the Pew Research Center which shows that two-thirds of highly religious adults had donated money, time or goods to the poor in the previous week, compared with 41% of adults who said they were not highly religious. The analysis didn't account for the value of financial or physical assets held by religious groups, or for "the negative impacts that occur in some religious communities, including [...] such things as the abuse of children by some clergy, cases of fraud, and the possibility of being recruitment sites for violent extremism."
The only religion proved false by science.
Plus, religious people are just a lot more likely to give to charities of all sorts.
I highly doubt that.
From what I can see, there's a correlation between being religious and being conservative, and also a correlation between being progressive and donating. Which combined would make me believe that atheists donate more than religious people.
That makes logical sense too - an atheist can't get away with praying for people.
Wrote a coherent response about the scientific method. NOT.
Some people couldn't follow a recipe to boil water to save their life...
That's kinda an amusing metaphor to use, since people get religion because they want to be "saved".
There are a lot of pyramid schemes which look reasonable at the bottom as well, that's exactly how they work after all. (And literal pyramid schemes preceded our current religions anyway).
At the top though it's very clear that the charity religions help the most is themselves. I was going to say 'most religions' but I can't actually think of one where that hasn't been true - with the possible exception of a couple that would only be considered pagan superstition by the majority here.
Sure, like any cult, they want to accumulate as many followers as possible. Judge them by what "charity" they do for those that they know will never ever follow them or any other religion and you get their true measure.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.