Carl wrote: I am aware of "faith based" charities, but I have never heard of an "atheist based" or "agnostic based" charity. - Almost all of the big charity organisations, certainly in the UK, are professionally run secular organisations. For example, the Red Cross, Amnesty International, Word Wildlife Fund, RNIB, RNLI, RSPB, RSPCC, RSPCA, Oxfam, Medicin sans frontieres, etc. etc. These are just ones that immediately come to mind. - The Red Cross incidentally gets its symbol from the reversal of the Swiss flag, signifying neutrality in war, and originated in the First World War. It is not a religious organisation, although its symbol is Christian. In Muslim countries it becomes the Red Crescent of course. - EDIT: In fact it goes back to 1859, long before WWI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cross - On Ethics. I'm currently reading "The Secular Conscience" by Austin Dacey, and can thoroughly recommend it.