What about the evil of atheism???

[KaerMorhen]

There's so many treads describing all the horrid thing -wars, slavery, intolerance, crusades, jihads- commited by Christians, Muslims, Jews and others who follow any religion. Right, but what about crimes commited by atheists like Maximilien de Robespierre due Great French Revolution, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and lesser communists thugs???. IMO moral relativism of atheism is best pictured by Stalin's sentence -'...One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic...'
None religion has caused such havoc on humanity like them above.

[wilting]

Was Stalin's personality cult not a religion?

EDIT: Personally I think the wrong type of people will use whatever is convienient to justify their actions.

My main problem with religion is the damage it does to freedom of human thought and rational thought and the insidious way this clouded.

EDIT: I would further point out that 'secular evil' has largely been defeated in the west; but 'religious evil' both foreign and domestic remains a major source of intolerance and violence. Relgion is the issue of our time.

[MET]

religion is the opium of the people
this one i learned from my brother:
if one person suffers from insanity, they call him crazy. if many people suffer from the same insanity, thy call it religion
obviously he had it from somebody, but don't know who.

but that had nothing to do with it.
everybody makes mistake, and does stuff tat are unaccepteble.
more powerfull people obviously have the power to do worse stuf then less powerfull.
it is a part of life at witch we have to live with.

[Skyler]

None religion has caused such havoc on humanity like them above.

What about the wars we have now? Or the wars of the past?

Sorry I forgot to chalk it up.

Poll:
Which mindset caused the world most of its problems!

Religion: 1 point
Atheism: 7 000 000 points

Voting will end in one minute!

vote wisely.

[Ragabash]

Religion is perhaps the most largest reason for racial hatred and wars that spur from these events quite often. Even when the war has other purposes and objects, relgion is often used as a method to recruit and justify own actions.

Religion is used more and more as a tool to wage wars, when in the past religion was used as a method to unify certain group against common enemy, now religion is used to spur racial hatred that will cause much more deep wounds then just wars.

This is somewhat strange thread, as in my opinion there are not a single war that have had atheism as a reson to wage wars, but dictators/leaders that have had their own ideologies about the matter. Even then, I would argue that atheism has not been a reason for almost none of the events that are often accosiated with atheism.

Remember, while being an atheist I don't accuse believers, but the mechanism how religions work most of the time. Religion itself is not the problem but how it functions in cultures, and we tend view and follow the "one true word".

[Skyler]

Remember, while being an atheist I don't accuse believers, but the mechanism how religions work most of the time. Religion is not the problem but how it functions in cultures, and we view and follow the "one true word".

Yes, that is why I gave them a slight advantage in my poll.

[Enemy of the State]

Many people like Stalin, Mao or Lenin, who were atheists, started their own religions instead. The cult they started, was far more fanatical. Mao Zedong was worshiped as a god in China. He is still in very highly respected and loved in China, there are even temples! Same with Stalin, many people were stomped to death after he died, everyone wanted to see him one last time.

Wars would happen just as much, religion or not. War is a part of humanity, and taking religion away wont change it.

[hekk]

i don't understand why we should blame all the evil things that happend in history on either religion or atheism.

its true that in history religion has influence some people to do nasty things, but it is also true that other things also have influence people to do the same thing.

anything can be a reason or a inspiration to do evil.

we have to stop blaming everything on one thing.

[Gwendylyn]

I wish I had a quarter every time someone equated atheism with communism. Guess what - its a faulty analogy. Atheism is amoral - it has no guiding moral principles. Atheists must look elsewhere to find their moral rules, whether it be communism or humanism. At the same time, theism is also amoral. Just because someone is a theist does not mean they believe in certain moral principles, such as the evil of sin or idolotry. Theists must go elsewhere to find their moral systems - whether it be Christianity, Islam, Buddism, or Scientology.

It's fair to compare the evils of Communism to the evils of Christianity, for example. It's not fair to compare the evils of atheism to the evils of Christianity, or other religions with moral guidelines.

Theism = Atheism
Christianity = Communism

[Mythos]

This is where that famous quote goes.

"Without religion good people do good things and bad people do bad things. It takes religion for good people to do bad things."
-No idea who said it (???? - ????)

[mocker]

*sigh*
Atheism is not a religion...

[Skyler]

*sigh*
Atheism is not a religion...

Not yet anyway.

[PacSubCom]

Atheism follows from reason. It's the reasonable viewpoint. You're saying that reason made Stalin do it. Given that religion is unreasonable, and people who "blame" atheism generally subscribe to religion...I mean, they believe in magic. Why should I take people who believe in magic seriously?

[Denny Crane!]

I firmly believe a belief in monotheistic deities has negative effects on the psyche, it is a mask yadayada for other yada yada like other forms of tribalism some have heard this arguement from me before.

Athiesm doesn't offer a tribe or collective grouping.

Peter

[MaximiIian]

Right, but what about crimes commited by atheists like Maximilien de Robespierre due Great French Revolution, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and lesser communists thugs???

1. Robespierre was not an atheist. Granted, he was anticlerical and a republican, but he was definitely no atheist. If anything, he was a deist with an overinflated personal ego that saw himself as mankind's savior.
2. Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot committed their crimes in the name of communism, without really even being real communists. They were dictators, regardless of their religion.
3. You don't have be a moral relativist if you're an atheist. One is not necessary for the other. For example, utilitarian ethics and secular humanism.

[mongoose]

None religion has caused such havoc on humanity like them above.

Atheism isn't a doctrine like Christianity that claims to guide people on a rightous path, and therefore is not responsible for the actions of it's followers.

[boofhead]

"The atheist can't find God for the same reason that a thief can't find a policeman."

[ThiudareiksGunthigg]

"The atheist can't find God for the same reason that a thief can't find a policeman."

I love these trite little pieces of smug nonsense believers use to prop up their fantasies.

Okay "Boofhead" - where is your policeman? I've been looking for him for 20 years now, but I keep getting told "Sorry, he's an invisible policeman who doesn't come when you call him and actually doesn't turn up when you need him. In fact, no-one has ever seen him, but you MUST believe he exists or one day he'll suddenly arrive and throw you in JAIL!!!!"

What a special, magical, wonderful policeman he is. Almost like Santa Claus ...

[Kino]

...
I love these trite little pieces of smug nonsense believers use to prop up their fantasies.

Okay "Boofhead" - where is your policeman? I've been looking for him for 20 years now, but I keep getting told "Sorry, he's an invisible policeman who doesn't come when you call him and actually doesn't turn up when you need him. In fact, no-one has ever seen him, but you MUST believe he exists or one day he'll suddenly arrive and throw you in JAIL!!!!"

What a special, magical, wonderful policeman he is. Almost like Santa Claus ...

Speaking of nonsense, your own post is drenched in smugness!

It's different though, because you're right...right?

[ThiudareiksGunthigg]

Speaking of nonsense, your own post is drenched in smugness!

It's different though, because you're right...right?

No, it's different because my smugness was deliberate, conscious and intended. A taste of their own medicine.