Secular charity link, and hiatus update

Ladies and gentlemen, you have my sincerest apologies for the hiatus the Human Decency Project has experienced (and will continue to experience as I balance grad school applications, my upcoming wedding, holiday planning, and my role in the young Austin Skeptical Society as member, moderator and blogger).

I'm looking forward to launching the HDP in earnest (with a charity drive in association with the Austin Skeptics) in early 2010. Until then, subscribe to our RSS feed so that you won't miss out on any periodic updates to the HDP blog.

In the meantime, a friend passed along this link, with a wonderful list of secular charities. Some of them are already featured on the HDP site, but I will add the others (with reviews) as time permits.

Thank you for visiting, and remember:
Be Good. Do Good. No strings attached.

-Matthew Coleman
HDP Founder

Skeptilove's Big Debut

Congratulations to Skeptilove (an organization after my own heart) for a successful inaugural launch at TAM7!

With the help of a bunch of amazing people, Skeptilove gathered 142 pounds of food and $1,656.25 for Three Square, "the [Nevada] valley’s food hub; a central location where donated and rescued food can be collected and distributed." Great job, everyone!

If you haven't checked out Skeptilove already, now is the perfect time to head over to their site to find out how you can help.

Feeding America

One of the organizations that I donated to recently is Feeding America. I usually focus on donating money to wildlife organizations and donating time to people-oriented charities, but this one was definitely an exception.

In the current economy, soup kitchens are running out of food. There have been a few articles about this problem in the New York Times, and Feeding America run ads which say the same. So many people are newly out of work and are going to food banks (many for the first time) that there isn’t enough food to go around. Feeding America is one of a handful of national charities that gives money to local organizations and helps distribute food. This isn’t all they do (the whole list is on their website under “how we work”), but that’s a summary of where the funds go. I recommend reading their page, because it’s really interesting to see the many places they need to stay connected to in order to stay effective- and to see how they use government funding.

Of course, food banks and soup kitchens will always need physical help (except during Christmas, which is when a lot of people are suddenly generous time-wise) which is one more reason I would usually volunteer instead of donating. (I’m also not well off enough yet to have more than one steady cause.) Recently, however, I just felt compelled to send a few dollars their way.

One caveat: After I donated to them, I must admit that I started getting many other mailings from other groups. I’m not 100% sure they were the ones who sold me out -- but I’m pretty confident -- so if you’d like to donate to Feeding America’s cause without adding to your junk mail, consider donating food straight to the soup kitchens in your area.

Mission Statement (beta)

Even though the site hasn't updated recently, it doesn't mean we've been slacking off! Some behind-the-scenes stuff has been going on, and I'm very excited about where we're going in the next few months. A joint HDP and Austin Skeptical Society project is in the works, and we're working on networking with other groups on more long-term projects.

In the meantime, here's out the beta version of the HDP mission statement:

The Human Decency Project was founded in 2009 in order to promote opportunities for atheists, secularists, non-theists and all others to perform much needed community services through non-religious organizations, to foster a sense of community amongst individuals without religion, to offer perspectives on the state of the religious conflict, religious freedoms, secular initiatives, and civil rights programs throughout the United States and the world, and to advance a positive image of non-believers amidst a climate of intolerance and misinformation. Furthermore, we are committed to advancing a positive stance on ethics and the human condition - one that stands strong against religious attack, and that is based on solid philosophical, rational, and pragmatic foundations.

Science for Humanity, added to the sidebar

I've just come across a very nifty looking group called Science for Humanity, and I've added them to the sidebar. I don't have the time to give them a proper rundown at the moment, but basically they're a group that wants to put science to work for humanity as a whole, and to use science to improve the human condition.

From their site:

Through our network and challenges programme Science for Humanity aims to bring together scientists, international development agencies, social enterprise and communities to design, develop and deliver innovative, real world, science based applications, which bring tangible benefit to people in the developing world.

Check them out: www.scienceforhumanity.net

As a side note, the tip for SfH came from twitter: @SkeptiLove to be precise. They have their own site which I'm excited to hear more about as they progress: http://www.skeptilove.com/.

EFF, added to the sidebar

Our latest addition to the sidebar is the illustrious Electronic Frontier Foundation, fighting at the boundaries of technology and civil rights since it was established in 1990. From their website:

From the Internet to the iPod, technologies are transforming our society and empowering us as speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers. When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990 — well before the Internet was on most people's radar — and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights.

Blending the expertise of lawyers, policy analysts, activists, and technologists, EFF achieves significant victories on behalf of consumers and the general public. EFF fights for freedom primarily in the courts, bringing and defending lawsuits even when that means taking on the US government or large corporations. By mobilizing more than 50,000 concerned citizens through our Action Center, EFF beats back bad legislation. In addition to advising policymakers, EFF educates the press and public.

EFF is a donor-funded nonprofit and depends on your support to continue successfully defending your digital rights. Litigation is particularly expensive; because two-thirds of our budget comes from individual donors, every contribution is critical to helping EFF fight — and win — more cases.

With the internet as ubiquitous as it is today and with privacy concerns at the forefront of many technological advances, it's good to know that organizations like the EFF are fighting to protect the end user. Among some of the wonderful features of their website are the blogger's and coder's rights FAQs, as well as a shop with nifty EFF swag, in case you wanted more of a material reward for your good deeds.

(No, I'm not getting any kickback from the EFF. This post is gratis, pro bono, written out of the goodness of my heart. I just hope they remember my generosity when my application comes up for a law internship in a few years...)

Staff Introduction: Andy

Hi all,

I’m Andy. I just graduated from the University of Michigan (a year behind Matt and Elizabeth, who are awesome people) with a double major in English and women’s studies. Last semester, I had a service-learning internship with Planned Parenthood, which was really great. I plan to go to grad school in the fall of 2010, but I’m spending the next twelve months away from school to figure out what exactly I want to study. My primary occupation right now is seeking employment, a prospect about which I’m very optimistic despite the economy.

I didn’t grow up in a particularly religious household. My mother is Christian, and my father is Jewish. We never went to church or to synagogue as a family, and as a result, I was never really stamped with an image of God. So, I grew up essentially atheist with a healthy curiosity about religion, having never really experienced faith myself.

The one thing that really stuck with me from learning about Lutheranism was that you had to do good works to get into Heaven. The principle of the thing seemed right – the will to help others reflects on a person’s goodness – but the acts themselves, I imagined, were tainted by questions of motive: are you doing charitable work because it is the right thing to do, or are you doing it because you’re afraid of eternal damnation?

I see a superfluity of charitable religious organizations doing wonderful things, and I wonder if motive really matters. All sorts of religions do charity work, including those that don’t have volunteer-hour requirements for the afterlife. Their reason is simple: being good people is an essential part of their identity. I’d like to think that’s true of atheists too. We’re not as organized as any religion, which makes it more difficult for us to rally under one banner or to affix the atheist label to the good works we do. But the atheists here are all, as Matt says, decent people with the will to do good things. We just aren’t doing them in God’s name.

Also, I’m gay. I don’t know of too terribly many religious organizations fighting for gay rights.

So that all said, my areas of interest (as pertaining to this blog) are primarily LGBT rights and civil rights, but I’m sure I’ll chime in from time to time on various other subjects. My areas of interest outside of this blog include golfing, reading, listening to music, drinking coffee, and playing board games.