Addendum:
According to the Charitable Choices
http://www.charitablechoices.org/chargive.aspAmericans give a lot to charity: $260.3 billion in 2005.
They also state:
Individuals give away most of this money: $199 billion in 2005, or 76.5% of all giving.
Further down the page it says:
"People who give to churches and religious groups give more than other people, according to a 2002 survey done by Independent Sector. They give an average of $1391 to their religious institution and $958 to other charities. Those who give only to nonreligious charities contributed $623 on average."
So lets do the math:
86% (
http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html) of the US's 217,800,000 contributes, on average $958 to non-religious institutions and $1391 to religious institutions.
0.86 * 217,800,000 * 1391 = 260,545,428,000
0.86 * 217,800,000 * 958 = 179,441,064,000
---------------
Total 439,986,492,000
But they stated total giving, religious and non-religious, was only 199,000,000,000. They are only off more than 221%. I guess that's close enough when one is trying to sell relgion.
After which we might, of course, ask how much of the money, donated to charity, is being used to patch up the lives of those destroyed by religious conflicts and religious intolerance.
