Think Atheist Joins Effort to Raise $1,000,000 to Fight Cancer

April 28, 2012 By 9 Comments

The Foundation Beyond Belief and the Stiefel family are teaming up this fall to raise $1,000,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society via Light the Night walks across the country.

Now, Think Atheist has joined the effort and they plan on hosting a marathon broadcast online to raise money later this year. They *really* want to share atheists’ experiences dealing with cancer (directly or indirectly). Can you help them out by sharing your stories?

Write about your experience with cancer and how it has impacted your life, and the life of friends and loved ones. Do you know someone fighting now? Are you, or is someone close to you a survivor? Have you lost someone? We want to hear about it! We’d like the submission to be approximately a page in length, but we recognize that sometimes a story has to be told and we’d rather have the story to tell than not have it because of a limit on length.

You can send your stories to Nelson@ThinkAtheistRadio.com.

By the way, the Chicago team is slowly building up in case you’re looking for a group to support or join :)

Filed Under: Atheist Generosity, Foundation Beyond Belief, General 9 Comments
About Hemant Mehta

Hemant Mehta is the chair of Foundation Beyond Belief and a high school math teacher in the suburbs of Chicago. He began writing the Friendly Atheist blog in 2006. His latest book is called The Young Atheist's Survival Guide.

  • advancedatheist

    Sorry, this still wastes money which could go to better uses. Raising that much money to fight obesity makes more sense, because we know how to make people lose weight, whereas most cancer “treatments” amount to acts of desperation and magical thinking:

    The War on Cancer A Progress Report for Skeptics           
    Reynold SpectorVolume 34.1, January / February 2010

    http://www.csicop.org/si/show/war_on_cancer_a_progress_report_for_skeptics/

    • http://twitter.com/InspFreethought Mike

      Notice that a significant fraction of the money goes to supporting people who have cancer in other ways: giving patients and their families accurate information, supporting them by forming local communities and opening up the lines of peer-to-peer communication, giving personalized assistance through the Information Resource Center, etc.

      For us, it’s a great way to build secular community, to participate in a physical activity that forges new friendships and raises awareness of this atrocious disease. As practical as it is, it is also symbolic.

      In short, there are immeasurable benefits to this campaign, and you should support it. =)

    • Dan

      Reynold Spector isn’t known for being very accurate on health matters, so I’d be skeptical about what he says. He received a lot of push-back from the skeptics at Science-Based Medicine for some of his writing. David Gorski (a cancer surgeon and researcher) takes on the article you referenced here: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/skepticism-versus-nihilism-about-cancer-and-science-based-medicine/

      And Dr. Crislip shows more of Spector’s confused thinking here: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/deadly-indeed/

    • BenofSoCal

       Sometimes the obvious answer isn’t the best one.  In the grander goal to fight the causes of either obesity or cancer, a million dollars will barely create a ripple.  But cancer – now there’s a disease that gets notice!  I noticed it.  Maybe a lot of other atheists are looking for a secular avenue for their donations.  Ever try to find one?  Seems like the church has as tight a grip on those avenues as the mafia has in tri-city sanitation.  If your goal is to create a secular avenue for charitable contributions, get known by the best route you can.  S’cuse me while I go to that site an make a small donation.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Autumnn-Ravensoul/1464562300 Autumnn Ravensoul

    Last year I was diagnosed with Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Cancer cells could be seen in the bone grafts  they did. After 3 months of Arsenic Trioxide treatments and I’m on my 2nd round of chemo those cancer cells are no longer there. Science is a process of learning. If we give up we give into ignorance. You saying this is a waste of money is saying the knowledge gained through the American Cancer Society, L&LS, and their scientists and doctors is worthless.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/FDGYHBEWVNGUG763L5X4TON3JQ Nazani14

    When are we going to get some traction on *preventing* cancer?   I support environmental causes because I think so many cases of cancer are caused by (duh) carcinogens in our air, water, household chemicals, and thing we are exposed to in the workplace.

  • Comfishoes
    • A guest

      What does this have to do with cancer again?

  • Heather

    My dad, Dr. David Edens, PhD passed away on 25 October 2009 after complications with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, Pneumonia, and Cryptococcyl Meningitis (from lowered immune system after chemotherapy). He was an Atheist. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is “my charity” and I asked for donations to the charity for my wedding. I’ll have to write to the above email address and send them my story. :)