Yeah bu... I don't... what the fuck?

So if you hang around the skeptical blogosphere you've probably, by now, seen or heard about the Non-Believers Giving Aid website set up to help people donate funds to relief efforts in Haiti (if you haven't donated to something like the Red Cross or Medicins Sans Frontieres then really, what the fuck is wrong with you?) You may have also seen some of the baffling responses to this.

Apparently when religious folks or celebrities or unaffiliated groups get together and raise money, and make sure it is well known, then they are just doing it out of the goodness of their own hearts. When skeptics or atheists do it though, they are just in it for the publicity. Seriously, what the fuck?

I'm sorry, since when did it become a publicity stunt for a group of individuals to attempt to organise a concerted response to aid other people and to explain why they are doing it? Oh that's right, when those people are skeptics or atheists. Everyone else does it because they should, but skeptics do it to make themselves look good. Apparently.

To those who think this is a publicity stunt:

Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. Your opinion is about as welcome and as useful as an anal fissure.

It's not about looking good it is about helping people. Just because you like to help people to make yourself look good doesn't mean everyone does - ease up on the projection of your own motivations. Did it occur to you that this might actually be an effective way of organising a group of people who pride themselves on being disorganised individuals? Did it occur to you that this might be a good way to encourage people to donate? Did it occur to you that this might have been set up so people who didn't feel they could contribute on the ground could actually make a contribution to easing suffering in Haiti? Clearly not. You leapt straight to "It's a marketing gimmick." Shame on you.

You claim that this is evidence that skeptics and atheists are trying to use the disaster in Haiti to score points for atheism and skepticism - yet your critique of it is so transparently an attempt to score points for you against the people or groups involved.

The fact that you think an organised and concerted effort to get people to donate to ease human suffering is but a publicity stunt says more about you than any of the individuals or groups involved over at Non-Believers Giving Aid.

Go fuck yourself.