A catholic priest - if he had a child, which is said to happen - would probably trust it to an atheist rather than to another catholic priest.
That's not the point and you know it. I am speaking to private citizens. Why don't you find private citizens who are atheists doing voluntary work, building houses, drilling wells over seas?? Where were the bus loads of atheists going to help the Katrina victims?? Why don't atheists care enough about others to actually get involved personally on an unpaid basis to do hard work?
And apparently one that doesn't call for good works, unless of course they get paid for doing it or make money off of it.
I've never drilled a well but I have repaired roofs, hung doors and trimmed trees for people who needed a helping hand, yes I'm an atheist and soft touch sometimes. On a much grander scale Bill Gates, Warren Buffet have donated billions to help others and yes they are atheist.
To answer that question: you don't find them when you're a person who never considered to do voluntary work. If you had, you had certainly informed yourself which organizations look for volunteers, and had found that most of them are secular, as are the people who volunteer for them. In Germany we have the THW, a nonreligious NGO with many volunteers that do exactly what you describe - drilling wells for the poor. Those volunteers just represent the population. There are some christians, even some muslims, but the majority are atheist or agnostic. I am not saying that religious people are more selfish than atheists. Believing in gods, demons, angels or whatever is a relict of human evolution and is not making you a bad person. But it's certainly not making you any better either.
Atheist with a heart of gold. Learned sympathy & empathy from hippie mother. Acerbic & sarcastic to the core; family comes 1st (though no wife or children). Would walk in front of a freight train for my most trusted confidantes (friends). As everyone gets older (it is a privilege) one's belief system moderates and I think we should all just respect one another without evangelizing nor pushing any idealogy on others. peace hedvig
THW is a agency of the federal government in Germany. It is ran and funded by the Government. Again, why don't you see Atheists take their own initiative and spend their own money to go out and help people? We both know but you won't admit it. It's because they generally don't give a shit about anything but themselves.