Which is worse — that funding at an esteemed university went to this study, or that an editor found it newsworthy? As being reported in the Chicago Sun Times, researchers at the University of Chicago and Yale New Haven Hospital conducted a survey and found that many doctors out there will care for poor patients, despite the doctor’s religious leanings:

“We can say a lot of doctors are doing a lot of good, whether religious or not,” said Dr. Farr Curlin, one of the authors of the study, published in the Annals of Family Medicine.

The study is based on a survey of 2,000 doctors with a 63 percent response rate. Thirty-five percent of non-religious doctors, compared with 31 percent of religious doctors, said they were likely to care for people with little or no health insurance.

Possible headlines for tomorrow’s edition:

“Atheist Fireman Rescues Child From Building”

“Atheist Police Officer Doesn’t Kick Puppies”

“Atheist Target Cashier Gives Service With a Smile”

“Atheist Parent Raises Happy, Kind Children”

It’s that last one that troubles, because for me, a “devout” atheist, it doesn’t read as a joke. If the pervading thought is that doctors, who have taken the Hippocratic oath, will not be altruistic merely because they shun religion, what must people think of how I raise my children? It’s the same, tired argument that if one doesn’t have religion in their life, then there’s no “moral compass” to dictate what’s right and wrong. That raising children without religion will simply turn them into selfish relativists, apt to do whatever they want, whenever they want.

I won’t rehash that debate and how incredibly insulting it is, because quite frankly I’m tired of it. But I will say this — try and reflect on people that have treated you with kind acts in your lifetime. Take notice of the warm smiles and friendly gestures you encounter in your everyday life. Now be really honest and ask yourself if any of those people would have treated you any differently if they were atheists. Because maybe they were. Your neighbor, your kid’s teacher, the corner grocer — any one of them might hold a humanistic view of our life here on Earth. Even your doctor.

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