SystemShock
Uh yu ka t'ann
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This is a common argument that apologists keep bringing up over and over again, mostly - as far as I can tell - ever since Christopher Hitchens started mentioning the number of deaths caused by religion throughout the centuries, during debates, talks, and in written pieces. And the "evidence" presented for the apologist argument is always the four horsemen of the atheist apocalypse: Hitler, Stalin, Temüjin, and Zedong.
And every time I hear this argument, I want to smack apologists across the face, because none of the aforementioned ever killed anyone in the name of atheism.
Hitler was not an atheist. This is made obvious by passages written in Mein Kampf, speeches, letters to his generals, going as far as describing Jesus as being Aryan warrior. Even the belt buckles in nazi uniforms said "God is with us". So no atheism there.
The Ghengis Khan wasn't an atheist. He wasn't a Christian, but he's known to have been a Tengrist. He also is known to have been tolerant of other religions and by all accounts wanted to learn about the philosophies of religions outside the Mongol empire. So again, no atheism there.
Which brings us to the last 2, Zedong and Stalin. I put them together as both were proponents of Marxism-Leninism, and indeed there is an anti-religion facet within the Marxist-Leninist ideology. But to say both killed people in the name of atheism is not correct.
Their actions were guided not by the non-belief in a deity (which is what atheism is) but by the fact that institutionalized religion was an obstacle to the socialist revolution, which is true of any period in history, as religions - like Christianity in ancient Rome, then England, Spain, France, etc - have always aligned with emperors, kings, and tyrants, used as political tools to control and oppress the masses, as religious leaders watched the suffering of the population from the comfort and warmth of the palace, all while absolving the kings and tyrants of their sins.
So, killing in the name ofa deity Yahweh still holds the title for more deaths, no contest.
And every time I hear this argument, I want to smack apologists across the face, because none of the aforementioned ever killed anyone in the name of atheism.
Hitler was not an atheist. This is made obvious by passages written in Mein Kampf, speeches, letters to his generals, going as far as describing Jesus as being Aryan warrior. Even the belt buckles in nazi uniforms said "God is with us". So no atheism there.
The Ghengis Khan wasn't an atheist. He wasn't a Christian, but he's known to have been a Tengrist. He also is known to have been tolerant of other religions and by all accounts wanted to learn about the philosophies of religions outside the Mongol empire. So again, no atheism there.
Which brings us to the last 2, Zedong and Stalin. I put them together as both were proponents of Marxism-Leninism, and indeed there is an anti-religion facet within the Marxist-Leninist ideology. But to say both killed people in the name of atheism is not correct.
Their actions were guided not by the non-belief in a deity (which is what atheism is) but by the fact that institutionalized religion was an obstacle to the socialist revolution, which is true of any period in history, as religions - like Christianity in ancient Rome, then England, Spain, France, etc - have always aligned with emperors, kings, and tyrants, used as political tools to control and oppress the masses, as religious leaders watched the suffering of the population from the comfort and warmth of the palace, all while absolving the kings and tyrants of their sins.
So, killing in the name of
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