Reading the comments on this story, I saw several people demonizing atheism, on the basis that people who declared themselves atheists – like many communist leaders – did so many atrocities. As examples of this, they usually mention Mao, Stalin and Hitler among others.
I will ignore the obvious error of Hitler being atheist, since Fascism and Nazism were not only movements with Religious roots but had also strong backing by the Church, even after their failure.
Here I will sidetrack a little to say this: Even if you compare Stalin’s and Mao’s to religious leaders like (this time correctly) Hitler, Mussolini, King Justinian and even Bush, you will see that were the first did what they did for the benefit of their country (albeit at a high cost of human lives within the same country they were benefiting) with tangible results (USSR become a superpower and China is on the same track right now), the later did their atrocities for no other specific reason than to follow demented (religious) ideals and/or satisfy their own (or, as in the case of Bush, the people that move their strings) lust for power.
But of course they base their whole argument on the opinions that have been spoon fed to them (Communism demonization) and hope the emotional baggage is enough to make a point.
Back on topic now. These people seem to ignore that with this kind of argument (“atheism is bad because Stalin was bad”) they open a whole new avenue of attack against religion.
I usually do not open this subject because I have come to realize that you should not attack an idea itself based on the actions that self-labeled “upholders” of that idea take. When I make an argument about a religion. I do not begin by enumerating all the bad things leaders of that religion has taken. All proponents will do to defend against this, is to just say that they (the religious leaders) were never true believers but liars instead.
However when that said proponent is the first to accuse atheism (of all things) of being one of the causes for, say, Stalin’s atrocities, I cannot help but wonder on how hypocritical that is coming from the mouth of a religious person.
Crusades, Inquisition, War, Fascism, Genocides, Destroyed woman rights ,Destroyed Human rights, Racism, War, Perpetuation of Epidemics, Anti-Knowledge, Terrorism, Abuse, Hatred and War-fucking-WAR!
These are the fruits of religion, if we take as examples the religious leaders of history.
Trust me Christian, you do not want to open this can of worms.
And just think, for every bad representative of atheism you can think of, it has hundreds of good examples. Scientists like Einstein, Philosophers like Marx, Spiritualists like Buddha and much more. Tell me how many good things religion has done? (And don’t bring examples like Mother Teresa or I will laugh bitterly)
Furthermore, just because a person is an atheist, it does not have anything to do with the way he acts in life. Unlike religion which tries to set moral guidelines (and such good guidelines they are), being an atheist is just that, the absence of belief in one or more supernatural beings and nothing more. It is not a religion as some would try to convince you (There is not Church of Atheism and no two atheists believe the same thing) and as such, it does not have a moral guideline that comes packaged.
However, as funny as it seems, as a rule, atheists tend to be quite more altruistic (or “good”) than most religious people, any way you look at it. The only immoral thing about an atheist is that he doesn’t follow the demented morality of other religions. He will not beat his wife because she was raped, he will not become a builder because he happened to be born as one and he will not sacrifice a human because “his god requires it”.
To paraphrase: Every religious person is immoral to the eyes of every other religion. An Atheist is just immoral for one more religion than everyone else.
If nothing else, he may actually take the best ideas from every religion and if after adequate criticism they stand up to his morality and further his way of life, he will absorb them, discarding any theological garbage.
I ask you, would a devout religious person do the same?
EDIT: Fixed Mother Teresa and Beating links
dbzer0 all the way :))
Say it goldmouth!!!! (lol) Say it!
p.s. Ante mh se ferw papa na se peisei : PP
Άαααχαχα. Να ακριβώς 🙂
Well, a _devout_ religious person will fear the changes hiding beyond it’s own morality. But you know what? Thats typical for most monotheist religions. They want you to crawl. To fear. I cannot understand how someone lives _under_ a god when it’s natural to live _with_ them, at least it is for me. I accept many gods and pantheons. Some are for me just ideas, some are historical and myth origin, some are so close I almost can feel their breath. No sick hierarchy, no exclusivity.. just the fact that this world is made of more than things we can describe or prove scientifically. Mankind was always bad at not trying to understand everything else before understanding itself.
I must confess that I am a bit confused by your comment.
How do you live with a god?
What do you mean when you say that humanity must “undestand itself”?
Of course the world is made of more than we can explain scientificaly…As time passes, more and more things will be explained and that is why monotheistic religions are fighting against progress. They know that they will lose their power when the mysticism is gone.
Crusades = Self defence against Muslim aggression.
Inquisition = 3,000 people executed by Secular authorities over a period of 300 years. The state of Texas has probably executed more people. In comparison, Spanish Anarchists and Communists (Atheists) murdered 110,965 in three years during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
War = Banned in Christianity except in self-defence or the defence of others. Even then, only allowed with minimization of civilian casualties. Read the Gospels and St. Augustine's Just War theory.
Fascism = Atheist. Fascism is an Atheist ideology and form of socialism were the state is effectively worshipped as God. Mussolini, who founded fascism, was an Atheist through and through, as well as a socialist. Mussolini often taunted religious people daring God to strike him down. "Jesus was an ignorant Jew" – Mussolini. Fascism is a form of socialism which incorporates big business into the running of the state while building a mythical pagan sense of national identity among the people.
Genocides = Banned by Christianity. Atheism on the other hand, well just look at the Atheist Nazis.
Destroyed woman rights = Men and women are considered equal in Christianity. In China, the Atheist communist government has forcibly aborted 30 million unborn girls. Hows that for misogyny?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article…
Destroyed Human rights = Human rights are based on The Bible. What Human rights were there in Atheist communist countries like USSR, Communist China, Pol Pot's Cambodia, North Korea, etc.
Racism = Religion says that there is one race, the human race. My own church is full of different races mixing together and inter-marrying, brought together by religion. Atheism creates racism by saying that people are material objects that can be categorized on their physical appearance rather than their "soul".
War = You already tried that one. See my answer above.
Perpetuation of Epidemics = Er, I think you'll find that the vast majority of scientists and doctors combatting epidemics for hundreds of years have been Christians and other religious believers.
Anti-Knowledge = The Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches devised writing for every language of Northern Europe. The Catholic Church invented the scientific method. The greatest scientists such as Isaac Newton, Copernicus, Galileo, Michael Faraday, Mendel, Max Planck and Francis Collins (discoverer of the Human Genome), have been devout Christians.
Terrorism = Invented by Atheist anarchists bombing innocent civilians in the 19th century and continued by Atheist communists and fascists murdering millions with state terrorism in the 20th century.
Abuse = Allowed by Atheism. Condemned by The Bible. When a Catholic priest abuses a child, the Catholic faith and the Christian religion as a whole condemn him because both The Bible and the Catholic Catechism clearly state that child abuse is the worst thing anyone can do. Besides, the Catholic Church actually has the lowest rate of abuse in the world. The highest rates of abuse are always found in secular institutions like secular schools and care homes/orphanages.
Hatred = Religion teaches love. The very word means to reconnect with other people. Atheism allows hatred.
War-fucking-WAR = Caused by Atheism-fucking-ATHEISM
Right. I see. When Christians such as Mussolini, Hitler, Crusaders,Catholic clergy and Inquisitors do bad stuff it has nothing to do with christianity because someone christian somewhere has written against it. When Atheists do bad stuff, it's all about Atheism, nevermind all Atheists who opposed them or secular criticism of such.
When Christians do good stuff, it's all because of Christianity. When Atheists do good stuff, it's still because of Christianity.
I see. No double standards here…
Also LOL at "Crusades = Self defence against Muslim aggression. " That is a winner!
Please get your facts straight. Here are some facts:
– Religious wars: 123 out of 1763 wars. That's 'only' 7% of all wars. Source: Encyclopedia of Wars, 2005.
– Publicly atheist leaders: More than 50% did mass killing of their own people (democide).
This atheist democide is not a coincidence, it's a pattern. The 20th century is called the bloodiest century of human history. Atheists (mainly communist) and pagans (like Hitler) are responsible for this. Christianity has nothing to do with this.
The fruit of non-belief often follows this pattern: A leader stands up, designs a social system based on progress, figures out this system does not work (because it contradicts human nature) and blames opponents and in the end starts killing these opponents. Religious people are, amongst others, always seen as opponents by atheist leaders.
I'm agnostic about the question why atheists do the horrible things the do. History just shows they did (and they still do).