Some years ago I became an apostate by leaving the church and became a “real” atheist. In Denmark the church and the state are still quite heavily intertwined. Luckily the biggest portion of the money the church receives are from believers who pay about 1% of their annual salary through a special church tax. Many of these never go to church, except for Christmas, when they get married or when they get children and need to get them baptized. What would happen if they spend that money on charity instead?
I have been thinking about ways to spend some of the money I don’t have to pay the church for altruistic purposes. So far I have donated to three different causes that I think makes the world a better place.
1) Wikipedia
We need to nurture and make sure that information in the public domain stays there and are available to anyone with an internet connection free of charge.
2) Khan Academy
I have always been interested in how we can improve the education system and now being a father certainly helps me appreciate any progress being done in this area. Salman Khan tells their story in this TED talk much better than I can do.
3) Global Witness
There are a wealth of different organization trying to help the poor in need, but I always find them lacking in that they seem to focus on individuals rather than looking at the bigger picture. When I watched Charmian Gooch talk about global corruption I instantly felt that this was finally something worth supported and something I could see really make a difference in the long run.