Monday, March 16, 2009

Random acts of kindness ... and not because the Bible tells you so


As you might appreciate, I don't exactly have corporate sponsors knocking down my door to be featured on The Atheist Missionary website (not that I am looking for them). I just point that out because I won't be surprised if I hear from the Canadian coffee chain, Tim Horton's, asking me to remove this picture from the site.
In any event, my wife gets the credit for this story because the subject of this post happened to her a few weeks ago while driving through a Tim Horton's drive-thru. When she came to the window to pay for her coffee, the attendant told her that the car in front of her had paid for her coffee. She had noticed the car and knew that she didn't know the mystery driver (we live in a very small city). When she asked the attendant whether the person had said anything, she was told that: "they just wanted to do something nice."
Well folks, since I heard about that, I have been randomly paying for people's coffees, donuts and bagels about once a week. I can tell you my kids love it. Try it at a drive-thru window near you - you'll like it. The reaction you get from the attendants is usually amusing and it's funny how sometimes the people you buy things for will try to chase you down to see if they know you or figure out why you bought their snack. When that happens I just give them the thumbs up or raise my coffee in the gesture of a toast.
It's nice being nice for the sake of being nice ... and not because the Bible tells you so.

Posted by The Atheist Missionary at 8:00 PM
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17 comments:

  1. Ha, That's Canada for you! I once rear-ended (not hard) a lady while not paying attention in the drive-thru at Tim Hortons. She waved it off without concern. When I drove up to the kiosk to pay for my coffee, the lady too had paid for my coffee. The cashier said it happens all the time.

    Oh Canada, our home and native land....
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  2. Kindness is good, God is Good!

    RT
    privacy.at.tc
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  3. Harold, my point is that you can derive tremendous enjoyment out of being kind without believing in God, caring for God or, for that matter, without even having heard about God. If there was just some way we could rid the world of irrational religious beliefs, people might realize that they don't need a promise of heaven or threat of eternal damnation to be good.
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  4. Tonight I was described as the "Ned Flanders of atheism" on reddit.com. I love it.
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  5. I think the problem lies in the definition of God; if you believe in God as a sort of bystander, fuck god. If you believe in God as that which is good in itself, I think I am God as you are God as the person's coffee you paid for is God. All the justification I need for doing good is the belief that it is good. "God" will do what he will with what he thinks of that. But if God is good, he'll agree with me. I don't need to first agree with "him".
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  7. This is great and all, but as an Atheist I just hope people aren't being nice without believing in God just for the sake of proving (to yourself or anyone else) that you can. Don't get me wrong - obviously you can be. I like to think, and think most people who know me would agree, that I'm a nice person. But if you're doing it JUST to prove you can, I'm not sure if it counts and sorta makes it seem like you're trying too hard.
    Sorry if I'm bringing too much negativity into this. Random acts of kindness rock, and my criticism is probably more applicable to religious people.
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  8. I like to tip the servers at the drive-thru, who work as hard as other waitstaff. That surprises them and feels good too.
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  9. Russ, as noted in the sidebar to my blog, "The thing that irritates me the most about organized religion is the suggestion that religion is good because it promotes ethically good behavior. Of course, this is nonsense and atheists do not require the carrot of heaven or threat of eternal damnation to lead morally upstanding lives. So I guess you should be a bit demoralized about the fact that at least part of my motivation to inflict random acts of kindness is to illustrate to "religiots" that religion is not required to do good works (the other motivation is purely selfish - I enjoy it). Tonight, readers of my blog were instrumental is financing a surgery to correct a child's cleft palate in the Third World - see the post entitled FIRST GOAL ATTAINED! Do you think that kid really cares about what motivated us to give?
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  10. You don't know that the person who originally paid for the coffee isn't religious. Maybe thinking subconsciously that paying for the coffee would give them better karma points and a greater chance at winning a free donut or a car or whatever. Though it probably wouldn't, cause those kids working at Tim's totally roll them up and then back down again. Still, It doesn't really matter either way, but its just a point I thought I'd bring up. All of your good deeds could be inspired by someone who was doing it because their religion inspired them so.
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  11. Reed, I can't argue with that. I have never attempted to suggest that much good has not been done in the name of religion. The problem is that plenty of bad has been done in the name of religion as well. Why don't we just remove the jealous "Thous Shall Have no God But Me", virgin birth, walking on water, resurrected, fairy-in-the-sky God? C'mon man, it's 2009.
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  12. You write as if worship of the jealous, smiting, interventionist God is the *only* form of religion. Which gives you and the Moral Majority something in common; they don't recognize any other religion either.

    The Dalai Llama, for example, is a notably religous person who does not worship God as described in the Bible, nor any other God.
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  13. Lovely story, brought a smile.

    *i put it on my nice(: blog*
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  14. Riley37, I have no problem whatsoever with the Dalai Lama or Buddhism. Most people do not consider Buddhism a religion but rather a way of thinking. Please search my blog for the post containing the word "Buddhism" - you will find an interesting discussion between myself and a Christian apologist.
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  15. "The problem is that plenty of bad has been done in the name of religion as well. Why don't we just remove the jealous "Thous Shall Have no God But Me", virgin birth, walking on water, resurrected, fairy-in-the-sky God? C'mon man, it's 2009."

    Plenty of bad has been done by atheists, coffee shop employees and puppies... why aren't you campaigning to remove them?
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  16. Sorry for the extra post, but hey... my first time here... just looking around. So anyway, I have a question for you...

    Your site says:
    "My hope is that this space will provide a critical but tolerant forum that will inform atheists and convert theists. Religious zealots should have every right to feel threatened by this blog because your supposed monopoly on morality is coming to an end. Imagine no religion ....... what a wonderful world it would be."

    Wow. You call that "tolerant?"

    "The purpose of this website/blog is to inform atheists and convert theists. Posts on this blog should interest those who are questioning their faith in irrational belief systems and those who have already freed themselves from such silliness."

    Ummm... so how exactly are you able to effectively "convert theists" when the second sentence of your "tolerant" sites open up with insults?

    Come on... can't you just he genuine and honest? Your site (at least what I've seen so far) is nothing but a slamfest. There is no visible tolerance, no open, friendly discussion... only sharp, rude, biting attacks.

    A shame, really. I'm good friends with many, many atheists. I'm afraid you're giving them all a bad name. :(
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  17. Hi Shucker - thanks for looking around. I don't mind being described as "sharp" or "biting" but I try to avoid being rude. Sometimes I get carried away and I apologize for that. Occasionally, I just get so pissed off (like at the Pope's recent reaffirmation of the RC Church's prohibition against condom usage) that I can't help myself.

    I would like to think that if you read my posts in totality you will agree that I am both honest and fair. C'mon, with a blog name like "The Atheist Missionary", you can't exactly accuse me of misrepresenting my aims.

    Like you, I have many friends with opposing views. However, I must say that I am finding my friends who profess adherance to religion to be very reluctant to discuss the logic (or I would say, irrationality) of their beliefs. To be frank, I really do not think that there is much of a debate despite the efforts of a few Christian apologists. If you search my site for a quote by Simon Blackburn, you will see that I strongly agree with his view that the only difference between people who hold "mainstream" religious views and members of wacky cults are that millions share the delusions of the mainstream religions. If you find this message offensive, I am sorry.

    My inspiration for this site is the future of my children. I have been convinced by the argument of Sam Harris in his book The End of Faith that a large part of our world's current problems are rooted in religion. I am also convinced that so-called moderate religious views enable extremists.

    Have a good night.
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