Does being religious make you more generous?

It was very interesting to catch a glimse of the insides of people's homes. It was a fairly well-to-do area. I remember the different smells, not anything unpleasant, and clocks ticking.

I used to deliver and collect envelopes for the National Children's Home when I was a little girl. With my Mum. It was a hard slog. Most people gave the envelope back with coins (or a folded note!) inside quite happily. A very few were grouchy. Some of them asked me if I was the little girl on the envelope.

I panic about having any ready money available when envelopes come through.

They do see that it does that, and they incorporate the guilt into their collecting. Why else would they go to the trouble of walking around dark cold streets in the evenings when people are at home eating or sitting beside their fires? It is much easier to go en masse to a shopping mall or busy street, stand in likely places and holdout your can to the hundreds of people passing by.

If you confront people on their own doorstep, they give more. Why? Because they are a captive audience, who can't pretend that they have not seen you, and they are embarrassed to turn you away empty-handed.

So they are being shamed into giving and feel resentful. If all you want is one donation, for one charity, this one time, you have gained. If you want goodwill, and a donation for the next good cause, and for your own charity the next time, you will have to try harder the next time, and the next person calling (probably just a week later) will get the earful you have sown.

Very few charities knock on our door - anyone who has the determination to make their way out here deserves a donation!

However, I do take bag's point. Whilst charities need to advertise what they do, doorstepping people is not good - nor is sending out "gifts" which are trying to bribe/guilt you into making a donation.

When approached I always say that we have our specific charities that we support, and unfortunately it is not theirs.

It is uncharitable to be thus insensitive to others.

In short a face-to-face, personal request, however carefully said, is harder to turn down than other kinds. Charities (literally) cash in on this because they know that full well. I think that is not kind and not a charitable way to behave towards other people who may have multiple reasons not to want to support whichever charity, and shouldn't be made to feel defensive. Door-to-door collecting, by envelope or by collection tin does that and not to see that it does that seems insensitive to me.

not as if there aren't...

elegran explains the reasons for the guilt people sometimes feel very well. No-one likes to say no to a request for a charitable donation because they think the collector will think badly of them. So not putting that guilt pressure onto people would be the best way forward, I think. It's not as if there are a lot of other ways to collect funds for charity, including online via social media nowadays, postal requests, etc.

I wonder why people feel guilt when they say 'no'? The door to door collections I've been involved in have either been national or local campaigns, widely publicised, envelope through the door, someone will collect. I've also done my share of political door-stepping and handing out leaflets but somehow the impassioned harangue from the householder seems to be part of the process in that case!

Door to door charities in our area became the same nuisance as cold callers and our local council supplied each household with front door stickers telling them they were not welcome. I have been involved with charities from staffing jumble sales and collecting in shopping malls but I would never invade someone's privacy by turning up at their door asking for money.

I should have said being generous is not just about....

I think it's important to remember that being charitable is not just about giving money to charities. People may have good reasons not to do that. I think, like when, that door-to-door collecting is too intrusive, whatever the cause. The feeling of one's privacy being intruded upon may be why some people appear annoyed when faced with a door-to-door collector. elegran is right that there are strict rules about 'stationary' collecting. Knocking on someone's door is the equivalent of approaching them and rattling a tin at them outside a shop. It shouldn't be allowed.

I have been part of a can collection in a shopping mall, and there were quite stringent rules. We were not allowed to approach anyone or to rattle the tin, or to block the passageway. We had to stand there looking appealing until people came up to us with cash. Even so we made quite a bit of money for the charity.

I think it's the approaching bit that riles me, Lilygran. Sorry. I'm happy to walk over and empty change out of my purse to someone stood there with a collecting bucket, but being waylaid is another matter. The bit that interests me is how/why people feel it's ok to come to my door to ask for money for charities - do they assume people won't mind? I wouldn't dream of going to a stranger's door to collect money off them when I don't know what charities they give to or whether they would be annoyed.

It is different, actually. In a supermarket or in the street you can avoid them if you want to, by steering a wide path or passing them while they are busy with someone else, and if they do stop you, you can say no thanks and walk on.

But when you have answered the door they are the ones who have to turn and walk away, and you are faced with being more positive about rejecting them than if you were in an open street and could leave. Add in the way we are taught to be polite and we feel guilty at turning them away. That is what makes us resent them - the guilt that they lay on us.

I don't see it as significantly different from approaching people in supermarkets or on the street, whenim. And as you say, you may be annoyed but you remain polite!

Not wanting to be rude or critical, Lilygran. I'm interested to know how/why door to door charity collection is justified. I see it like cold calling - uninvited and unwanted. I give to charities of my own volition and feel annoyed when people appear at my front door to ask for, or sell, something out of the blue. I probably look annoyed, too, even though I usually say 'no thankyou, I'm not interested.'

Sorry, thatbags I wasn't intending to suggest that you were hostile to charitable giving. The last two questions were intended rhetorically! I'm really interested in those questions, though. I've spent years collecting for various charities, door to door and occasionally on the street and I've sometimes encountered really venomous attacks on me, charity in general or the one I'm collecting for. And quite often rude dismissal. Why? They can just say, ''no'. As many people do.

When I was doing my (late in life) BA degree in French and German at the University of Queensland, I knew a few students who were studying theology. The further they got into the subject, the more likely they were to become atheists! In the end, one student reckoned there wasn't a single believer in the department!

I mention this because these are the very same people who were once religious, and I cannot believe they became less charitable after exchanging religious belief for logic, or a scientific world view.

Also, some of the charities religious people give to, are religious charities, so there's a modicum of self-interest there. For example, I know from working in the local Zionist office, that most Jews quite rightly donate to Israeli causes, such as tree planting. But this again has some self-interest, because as Jew it is logical to support Israel, which might one day be the last safe place of refuge.

rubylady - I am sorry that you have found that non-believers "ardently put down your beliefs." There are many, myself included, who have no religious faith, but respect others' beliefs (with the proviso against fundamentalist extremism).

The other day my 5 year old GS asked his Mum "What's all this about god?" and she explained the concept and he said "Is he real or is it like Father Christmas?" - my DD explained that people hold different beliefs about this and that there was no one answer she could give. He thought for a minute and then said "No - I don't think he exists." He may very well change his mind as he gets older and studies the question in more depth, and he will have the support of us all in that quest. But he is a sweet kind boy and that is the most important thing - he will grow up with sound moral values and lots of love to share.

I do not overlook centuries of moral training and development of human thinking at all. I just attribute it to common humanity, innate morality that our ape cousins possess too, instead of to religion.

lily, where have I shown hostility to others' charitable giving? What do you know about my charitableness? I'll answer that for you: Nothing! If I were not so polite, I'd tell you something better left unsaid.

Sorry my last sentence previous post needs more punctuation!

'From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.'

Is more my way of looking at it! As a society, with or without God, I think as human beings we ought to do what we are able to promote the good/ well being of the whole.

I give regularly to particular charities and ad hoc to others (e.g the Lest We Forget' collection at the supermarket yesteday!). I choose to support human and environmental charities over domestic animal charities. I do some voluntary community work. Not boasting just saying that as a Humanist I am as motivated to 'give' as any person who does so because of their religious faith.

On the point of faith organisations being registered charities then I am personally not counting 'tithing' /donating that simply supports that institution to exist as real charitable giving!

I don't think people whose religion (most of them, I think!) urges or requires them to give to charity do so to gain 'Brownie points in heaven' either, Nellie. Rubylady a lot of charities make it a rule not to support other charities. There are charities that do, and there are some who mainly support other, smaller charities. The fact that Christian Aid didn't agree to support your charity doesn't mean they are uncharitable. You have to pick the charity you ask for help both for purpose and readiness to support the work of others. thatbags as usual you overlook the effect of centuries of faith on the general attitudes of the population. Why do some of us think charitable giving is a good thing? And why are some people very hostile to the idea?