G. Volunteer Firefighters' Relief Organizations A: Fill & Download for Free

I see answer after answer asserting that “there is no middle.”Are you kidding me?This question doesn't say:“. . . in the middle concerning belief in God?”The truth is that there is plenty of room in this question to think outside of the “God does/doesn't exist” box.On Quora it is trivially easy to find examples of atheists literally referring to theists collectively as “unintelligent”, “silly”, “stupid”, “deluded” etc., and dismissing religion in similar terms. Worse yet, it is common to see answers that not only insult theists and theism, but that also actually accuse them of being a negative influence in modern society.Many times atheists will point to religion based terrorism and violence for example. Indeed, there is no shortage of news coverage of such events, and they easily grab people's attention, and often “confirm” the negative “bias” that many non religious people have about those who are religious.Let's consider this though: how many times have news outlets reported on violence that never happened in the first place, because the issues that would ultimately have driven it, were mitigated well before it got to that point, by the influence of religious leaders, or by the attitudes and beliefs held by the non militant majority of religious people.During the big hurricane that flooded many parts of the Houston, Texas area a couple of years ago, I participated[1] in flood evacuation with my boat and a crew of four who, multiple times jumped out of the boat and into the murky, sewage contaminated water in order to physically knock on doors and check for trapped victims (e g. They rescued two dogs that had been left, tied up in a garage, where the water level was so high that they were up to their necks in water. )I am an atheist but at least three of my crew were theists. We had been sent on that “mission” by authorities at the fire station near my house, but cars with trailered boats lined both sides of the street as far down the road as I could see, and there were hundreds of people waiting for assignments.Here’s a ABC News link[2] to a picture of the “Cajun Navy” coming to the rescue.Cajun Navy convoyI appreciate those folks one hell of a lot. I met, and worked with a few people that came from as far as Arkansas. And a FDNY truck passed right by the entrance to my neighborhood!But lots and lots of us Houstonians helped our fellow Houstonians.Imagine a version of the picture above, but where the road is straight and you can see down probably 3/4 of a mile, at least. Now imagine that both shoulders of that road are lined with cars pulling boats, all the way—as far as you can see—down that road.There were so many in fact, that it was not possible to manage and organize that many people at the fire station. Instead, a large church across the street threw open their doors, made all of their facilities available to us volunteers, fed us food prepared by congregation members, and found places to store all sorts of food, water and equipment that was constantly arriving—mostly in vans from other churches that were organizing donation drives.We even took the nasty smelling, large dogs we had rescued back to the church where they were literally taken in, bathed, fed and fostered by a family (possibly two families) until permanent homes were found for them.During that event, no one cared about religious affiliation This scene was repeated at dozens if not hundreds of churches in the Greater Houston area. I never saw a single news report that talked about a specific church during that event, except for one very prominent church that “refused to open their doors.” That report, of course, went viral and the pastor was subject to withering criticism by people all over the country.Of course, there were quite valid reasons for that pastor's decision, but the vast majority of what I heard was purely criticism. Recently the city of Houston honored that pastor for all of the things his church has done to help victims of that hurricane. They are real things—good things—but still, there was a huge outcry from “people on social media.” Am I surprised? Not one bit.His church was partially flooded, and he was wise enough to consider whether or not it was a safe place, and generally prepared to house refugees, volunteers and supplies. Meanwhile I was out sailing around flooded neighborhoods—where the street and house lights were still on—in my fancy new boat, with her 100% aluminum hull. A lot of people did really dumb things then, some paid with their lives.The fact is that even if it had been true, and that pastor had deserved all the criticism, THAT IS ONE SINGLE CHURCH!!Why was the reporting on all of the positive contributions of churches and members of their congregations given such a tiny fraction of the attention that the single “negative example” was? Ironically, it was partly thus because that single example stood out so prominently against the solid, ubiquitous background of churches doing so much good. Frankly, they just were too damned boring to be noticed . . . mostly . . .Just now I managed to find this[3] photo on CNN’s website. I wish I had one of the church where my huge group of volunteers was marshaled. It was crammed with people, and supplies. It’s parking lot was crammed with boats waiting upon their trailers to be sent off to help somewhere.I would also note that I'm not just talking about Christians here. I saw many people who were Jewish, Muslin, Hindu, and also many Christian denominations: Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Mormon, the independent “community” churches, etc. There was also no shortage of atheists.I guess that's one way to get an atheist to go to church!This also came from CNN’s site[4]. I personally witnessed a scene very similar to this one. Two firefighters were carrying a very aged, fragile woman the same way these guys are. As they passed by me I heard one them them say in a low voice “It’s okay honey, we’ve got you.” I still cry every time I think about that.If there is a God then S/he is the only one who knows which ones were the theists, and which were the atheists.I’ve focused on hurricane flood rescue here because I participated in it and saw so many beautiful things, by people who just cared about other people. This is what theists, and atheists—together—do, over and over and over again when they need each other’s help. The churches often have infrastructure to offer, so big mixtures of people, of all sorts, often end up sequestered there and interacting with each other.And here’s the thing that I desperately wish I saw more of on Quora:These people all treated each other with respect, and focused on how they could work together.On Quora, theists and atheists could ask and answer questions, and make comments with each other and show each other respect when they do that. It would be a great way to learn about each other.Or, we can ridicule each other, over generalize based on a few loud mouths, and just generally act like school children. Even the shy among us can participate by viewing and upvoting that sort of nonsense.I and a few other atheists learned how to actually pray for people we care about, and who want prayer more than anything else when we’ve asked how we can help them. Sound silly? hypocritical? If so, why? I have made the case that is is neither silly nor hypocritical. I’ll put a link to that answer[5] at the bottom of this one. That seems like some pretty good “middle” ground to me. It encouraged me that a lot of atheists agreed with what I said.After the hurricane, many church congregations were also “passing the offering plate” among their own congregations, specifically for monetary donations earmarked for “Hurricane Relief”, and many of those people opened their homes to displaced families—strangers. The Bible specifically teaches that believers should not announce and publicly perform their “good works, so a lot of what was done was intentionally kept off the public radar.That last sentence really carries the main point I'm trying to make here. Why are we so ready and willing to scoff and laugh at and criticize and even demonize theists, and feel so justified in doing it, when the vast majority of atheists doing that have made no actual effort to really look at the whole picture?Who’s got time to thoroughly research everything they form opinions about? Well, not most people, that's for sure. But in that case the reasonable course is to not jump to conclusions or use an enormous group of people as scapegoats because of the easily accessible, but highly sensationalized media reports that grab our attention.There is, in fact, one hell of a lot of middle ground.Footnotes[1] John Hardegree's answer to How are Quorans in the path of Hurricane Harvey? Check in and let us know if you are OK.[2] Cajun Navy convoy[3] Image on cnn.com[4] Image on cnn.com[5] John Hardegree's answer to How would you offer thoughtful condolences to a very religious friend on the death of a relative when you're an atheist (without being hypocritical)?