Atheist Killers - The Lie that Religion leads to Violence

This is a response to the misconception that religion is responsible for the major atrocities of violence in the world. The examples I give here will focus just on the past several decades, as thats all thats needed to give overwhelming evidence to debunk this myth. There are many more examples throughout all of history, but just these three examples are strong enough to stand alone.
Discussion and debate is encouraged. Please keep it respectful and civilized.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• atheist
• atheism
• religion
• faith
• violence
• murder
• crusades
• myth
• humanities
• social
• science

[UNFFwildcard]

MisterBusta, you completely forgot about Enver Hoxha's Albania - a place where atheism was legally ratified as the state religion, where all other religions were completely banned, and getting caught reading the bible to your children was punishable by death by firing squad.

Societies that adopt atheism as a state philosophy (not secularism, but atheism) have a 100% failure rate for protecting basic liberties and human life.

[MisterBusta]

Yes, there's several more I could've added. But thanks for that! You're 100% correct.

Many people claim this violence against religions is purely politically motivated and has nothing to do with atheism; but as the state was ATHEIST (not secular, as you pointed out) it makes them directly comparable to the religions of Religious Wars of the past.

[Blackmark52]

MistaBusta misunderstands the nontheist contention. Religion is often violent while claiming to be a force of peace and love. No amount of violence from a "control group" absolves or even diminishes that. (He doesn't understand the purpose of a control group.)

The other point that's missed here is that the communist regimes cited, attacked religion not to advance atheism but to wipe out a potential political threat and solidify power. In that regard, they too were behaving as a religion.

[MisterBusta]

Your comment about the atheist states attacking believers because of political motives can be used EXACTLY the same way for any Religious Wars. In fact, historians will agree that the Crusades were all about power, land and politics. Religious faith was a HUGE part of it too, of course; just as the atheism of the communist states cited were also a huge part of it.

[Blackmark52]

MB's response that the Crusades were political is weak.

Religions are political and they want land and power. That christian kings did the churches bidding doesn't mitigate religion's role. Neither does that argument address things like the Inquisition whose sole purpose was to wipe out people of opposing beliefs.

The holy books command their followers to do violence. Attempts to deny this does violence to reason and harbours the propensity to violence within the moderate majority.

[MisterBusta]

... "whose sole purpose was to wipe out people of opposing beliefs." That is EXACTLY what these atheists dictators were doing to anyone who was not an atheist. Thanks for pointing that out for me.

Your argument would only be valid if these atheist killers did not specifically target Believers. But since they did (and did so with a furious violence, I might add) your argument is weak AND could be used to defend religion in the same exact capacity.

[proudinfidel111]

"orthodow christianity was still allowed" in the same way DDR was a "democratic republic". On paper yes, in reality no.

[Blackmark52]

A thief that says he's less of a thief by pointing a finger at others is still a thief and now a liar.

Your examples are about communism, not atheism. The fact that communism adopted atheism is irrelevant. Don't blame christianity for the Nazis, don't blame Germans for Hitler. It's a matter of church policy and doctrine as laid out by scripture. There is no doctrine of atheism for you to point an honest finger at. The bible, however, has a plethora of evil advice and people follow the bible.

[cloudazer]

A recent comprehensive compilation of the history of human warfare, Encyclopedia of Wars by Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod documents 1763 wars, of which 123 have been classified to involve a religious conflict (that's less than 7%). what do you think about this statistic? I honestly couldn't find any stat that contradicted it but I thought I should get more people to confirm this.

[UNFFwildcard]

I've seen his videos. I'm not impressed. He assumes a physicalist mindset and defines existence as the natural, and therefore the supernatural does not exist.  It's a circular argument.

Science can make no comment on the supernatural or on ontological statements. This is the basis of the philosophy of science. Science cannot determine the existence of God.

/watch?v=6eCwTkJQ2DQ

[wowskater99]

god is not real and fightingathiest has proven it many times therefore people should be taught athiesm because people should be taught scientific answers