This Metro article reports:
Are atheists more generous than Christians? This homeless man’s experiment seems to suggest so.
Some religions may say change comes from within, but this homeless man has come up with an ingenious way of determining which faith produces the most generous devotees.
An image posted on Reddit shows the man with a sign bearing the message ‘which religion cares the most about the homeless?’ and nine begging bowls in front of him.
Each bowl is placed on top of a piece of paper bearing the words ‘Muslim’, ‘atheist’, ‘Jewish’, ‘Buddhist’, ‘spiritual’, ‘agnostic’, ‘pagan’, and ‘Christian.
Reddit user Ventachinkway, who uploaded the image, said: ‘When I passed him he proudly announced “The atheists are winning!”.’
Many commenters drew attention to the fact that the US, where the picture was taken, is predominantly Christian, while others pointed to the carabiner apparently donated by a Buddhist.
I have also came across these:
- article from Patheos: Are Religious People Really More Generous Than Atheists? A New Study Puts That Myth to Rest.
- article from Hotair: Confirmed: Atheists more motivated by compassion in charitable giving than believers are; Update: Numbers added
These are not reliable studies, but I wonder if there exist some good ones regarding the influence of religion on generosity.
Are there any studies which corroborate or disprove this "experiment"?