By TELEGRAPH.CO.UK
Added: Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 UTC

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/7055062/Simon-Cowell-not-father-of-Jasmine-Lennards-child.html

Professor Richard Dawkins appears to see the disaster in Haiti as an opportunity to further his atheist cause.

The author of The God Delusion has urged those wishing to help survivors of the earthquake to avoid such well-established charities as Christian Aid. Instead, he encourages them to donate money through Non-Believers Giving Aid.

“Preachers and televangelists, mullahs and imams, often seem almost to gloat over natural disasters – presenting them as payback for human transgressions, or for 'making a pact with the devil’,” he claims.

“We do not hide behind the notion that earthly suffering will be rewarded in a heavenly paradise, nor do we expect a heavenly reward for our generosity. The myth that it is only the religious who truly care is sustained largely by the fact that they tend to donate not as individuals, but through their churches.”

TAGGED: COMMENTARY, HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS