what did we expect?

Great Vox post here. As the title says, what else would we expect from atheists? Should we be the least bit surprised at their apathy? They're plenty willing to scream and whine and cry and generally throw a fit about what others are doing, but actually giving money to support such ranting and purposeful offending? Well now, that requires such fuzzy things as convictions and a desire to do well in the world for folks other than oneself, sensibilities atheists have not shown themselves to possess large quantities of these days.

Also, how on the mark is the following bit from the comment thread?

AIDS is already preventable, simply by an exercise of choice. The liberal do-gooders of the world just don't like the IMPLICATIONS of that fact, so instead they want to erase the consequence of that choice. And they want the world to spend billions, trillions even, on efforts to do such. It's about removal of consequences, more than about saving lives.

If saving lives were really the prime objective, logic suggests a much better possibility of success by funding missionaries to go to AIDS-heavy parts of the world and convert people to Christianity. That is a proven method, and doesn't even require giant donations to GlaxoSmithKline, which has no proven method.

But of course that just wouldn't do. Why, we can't have those poor people become Christians, and maybe learn to live together without tribal genocides, dictators, voodoo medicine, and bad agriculture. It simply isn't ... uh... politically savory.

What an excellent take. Whether or not one is a Christian, facts are facts. By far the most progress in stopping the spread of AIDS in Africa has been made via abstinence-only education and that mostly (if not entirely) at the hands of Christians. So to restate what the guy says in different words, if it were truly the saving of lives that were of primary concern, we would put or prejudices aside and wholly support missionary efforts in the area that already have a proven track record in not only stopping the spread of AIDS but in combating other societal ills as well. The fact that we (as a nation/culture) don't suggests that there is a higher priority in our minds than saving lives of people in far off lands. Ultimately, we want to feel good, free, and empowered, far more than we actually want to exercise the humility necessary to do the best thing for others. Yay, go Western culture...