It is a widely held truism that more religious Americans tend to be more charitable. ┬áThe thesis that those who are closest to the creator are the oneÔÇÖs most┬áwilling to help out their fellow man, woman and child has become a primary┬ájustification for the continuation of religion as a societally positive force.

The thesis is even believed by many if not most atheists, to the extent that secularist  have attempted to mount charitable efforts to show that nonbelievers are charitable too.

There is a problem with the belief that believers are especially altruistic financially and otherwise. It is not based on sound science, and may not be true.

In a paper in The Social Science Journal titled “Does Religion Foster Generosity”, Roy Sablosky puts a brace of technical torpedoes into the belief that theists are more generous. He┬áobserves that no one really knows the relative rates of charitable giving in┬átheists and atheists because no one is actually measuring levels of┬ácontributing. What we have been relying upon is self-reporting of contributions via mass surveys. That is inherently unreliable. ┬áBecause theists are prone to think
they should be charitable to be in accord with the demands of their supernatural deity and scriptures, they may be overreporting their generosity. There are also potential problems with survey selection bias. Very importantly, experimental studies conducted over the years have failed to observe that theists are any more giving than nontheists.

In view of the lack of evidence that those who attend church are more charitable, it is incumbent on researchers to bring to bear the most methodically sound measures to determine relative levels of charitability.