Atheist doctors more likely to care for the poor

Atheist doctors more likely to care for the poor than religious ones

"This came as both a surprise and a disappointment," study author Farr Curlin, MD, said. "The Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist scriptures all urge physicians to care for the poor, and the great majority of religious physicians describe their practice of medicine as a calling. Yet we found that religious physicians were not more likely to report practice among the underserved than their secular colleagues."


Reported with references here. This research is from a few years ago but I'm at a loss to explain why there were results like it describes. Why should a doctors faith make any difference? Perhaps the difference isn't really statistically significant and this result is more an artefact of the sample - I hope so.

But I am concerned that the doctor doing the study claimed to be disappointed. Did he expect people without religious belief to be less moral and more self centred?