“Christians Should Be Effective Altruists” by Bentham’s Bulldog

 

1 The Christian duty to give to the poor

(This is a crosspost from my blog).

Most Christians aren’t effective altruists and most effective altruists aren’t Christians. But in my view, the reason for this is sociological; there's no deep conflict between the two ideas. Christians should be effective altruists—they should look to give effectively, just as others should.

I’ve written a long piece rebutting the main objections to effective altruism. In short, I think the core idea behind effective altruism is very commonsensical: that we should try to do good effectively. Doing this means not just donating or taking whichever career seems good to us, but actually looking at high quality evidence about what does the most good. As Proverbs 12:15 says “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.”

In my view, Christian scripture emphasizes the core tenets of [...]

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Outline:

(00:10) 1 The Christian duty to give to the poor

(07:17) 2 Focus on effectiveness

(09:38) 3 Give to foreigners

(15:12) 4 Conclusion

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First published:
May 17th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/RoENAh9GhkJkcrH4j/christians-should-be-effective-altruists

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.