Pope's Astronomer says, "Creationism is a kind of Paganism"

[jeriendhal]

Link: http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=674042006

News like that makes me smile, even if my pagan friends will be rightly offended to be equated with Bush and Pat Robertson. :)

And one more: "Washington Diary: The Culture of Giving"

In which a BBC reporter is boggled by USAians habit of giving away masssive amounts of money to good causes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4756363.stm

And I am boggled in return. I don't think much about giving away to charities, aside from noting it on my tax forms every year. I suppose there is a point to it, as he notes that private institutions handle stuff that in Europe would be paid for by the government. But really, is the idea of giving away money to charities considered unusual on the other side of the Atlantic, or are just the amounts in question so extreme (as usual) in comparison?

Comments

[david-wisdom.livejournal.com]

Regarding charities, I expect it's the latter. In Germany, for example, the equivalents of the Smithsonian and Carnegie Hall are entirely government-funded, so there's no need for private donations.

I think it's just a matter of expectation. We expect such things to be funded privately, so we donate generously in amounts that make Europeans blush. Contrariwise, Europeans expect such things to be funded publicly, so they pay tax rates that stagger us.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Well keep in mind that US charity probably doesn't match the funding given by governments in Europe to cultural institutions as a percentage of GNP or per capita. And huge amounts of charity money goes down the gullet of paying for more fund raising. And even more importantly donations to churches are also counted as charitable donations, so America being much more religious probably has a lot to do with it. Whereas European churches and cathedrals are frequently endowed with lands they get rents from or kept up at government expense as tourist attractions/part of national heritage.

I don't give much myself. I'm frequently unimpressed by organizations that are asking for money.