Faith does breed charity

Roy Hattersley [a retired Labour politician and a devout atheist ;-)] writes a very interesting article about how the presence of religious (actually, looking at the examples, Christian) faith seems to motivate more good-doing than humanism.
"It ought to be possible to live a Christian life without being a Christian or, better still, to take Christianity �la carte. The Bible is so full of contradictions that we can accept or reject its moral advice according to taste. Yet men and women who, like me, cannot accept the mysteries and the miracles do not go out with the Salvation Army at night.
The only possible conclusion is that faith comes with a packet of moral imperatives that, while they do not condition the attitude of all believers, influence enough of them to make them morally superior to atheists like me. The truth may make us free. But it has not made us as admirable as the average captain in the Salvation Army."
I seem to recall seeing some research a handful of years ago that showed that the proportion of people in the caring professions who were 'religious' was two -or was it three?- times higher proportionally to the population in Britain. Makes you think, eh?
Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Faith does breed charity: