Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history

a reply to: ArnoldNonymous

I don't think atheism plays as much of a role in mass murder as does immorality, greed, power hunger and outright lack of empathy.

But, I'm sure that I will be told that I'm in error because atheism is obviously the cause for all of the above.

Whatever the case, man has been killing fellow man for all time. Until we learn how to get along, we will continue to do so. The banner that flies above the killing does nothing to lessen the fact that people have died, nor will it bring them back to life, nor does it justify the killings in the first place.

a reply to: Daniem

I appreciate the time you put into your post. There are a lot of wars that I haven't heard of that you posted and I will have to look into them.

The argument presented is not whether the commander or leader had specific religious beliefs. It is whether the war was based on a religious goal or cause.

You might wanna read this post thread (all 82 pages of it): Are Atheists Air Brushing History?

I contend that Atheists, specifically radical Atheists led by Richard Dawkins, are conspiring to air brush history to conceal the connection between Atheism and the worst atrocities of world history.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: ArnoldNonymous

I am curious as to how many humans, at the time of taking another's life, be it in war time or whenever, had felt they were in the right.

Had thought in their heart, "God is on my side" or that the other person was "evil".

Were all the participants in all conflicts god worshippers/believers or all atheists?

Before and/or during combat (the time of killing another human) how many soldiers on each side took part in a religious service or prayed to themselves to have God save them and help killed their enemies (other humans).

Has there ever been a war or mass murder, as the title states, that did not have religious humans
involve in the killing?

Just a thought....

originally posted by: woogleuk
Hitler wasn't an atheist, he believed in God....he just didn't like Christianity or, apparently, Judaism very much.

I suppose this statement is debatable, but I would have to agree with you. Hitler made multiple references to a higher power, but his actions definitely did suggest he didn't like the church very much. Technically he was still a Catholic while holding power in Germany, as he was never excommunicated or anything, unlike other prominent Nazis. Hitler didn't really crack down extremely hard on the church, although he succeeded in shrinking their influence, but this was mainly for political reasons. Had he not taken politics into consideration who knows what he might have decided to do.

But he stated on many occasions that Christianity was not compatible with Nazi ideology, which he held as the most important thing to him. So much so that all of his decisions, even those of a military nature, were based on Nazi ideology instead of basic military sense. This is partly why Germany lost WWII, but I digress. What I have concluded is that he probably did believe in God in a certain sense, although I would not consider him a Christian by any means. So he believed in some type of Creator, but honestly I don't think he really had it figured out by any means. He was confused and torn on the issue. I think that had he not been raised a Catholic he might have taken a tougher stance against the church.

As far as all the people killed in the name of religion it is hard to say. Throughout history there have been many religions, and I think it would be next to impossible to first determine the religious views of every single historical person who waged war against others, and then determine whether their actions were religiously motivated, etc...But you would have to calculate all those types of things to truly get an accurate answer in my opinion. And then there is the possibility of a religious army, or an army led by a religious person, who are defending themselves from foreign invasion or something like that, which may or may not be considered a religious conflict. So does it matter who the aggressor is? There are many other potential questions that must be answered to even approach an understanding of how to calculate this type of thing. Interesting read nonetheless. Thanks for posting.

Is it crazy to think that if all of these horrific mass murders never took place, how much more over populated our earth would be. do you think that we would be closer to extinction than we are now if none of the killings took place??? food for thought

originally posted by: Annee
You might wanna read this post thread (all 82 pages of it): Are Atheists Air Brushing History?

I contend that Atheists, specifically radical Atheists led by Richard Dawkins, are conspiring to air brush history to conceal the connection between Atheism and the worst atrocities of world history.

That is as dumb as saying a-unicornists are sick.. 99,99% of all murders have been comitted by them. See because you dont believe in somethings existance means nothing.. its what you DO believe that makes a difference.

originally posted by: Daniem
originally posted by: Annee
You might wanna read this post thread (all 82 pages of it): Are Atheists Air Brushing History?

I contend that Atheists, specifically radical Atheists led by Richard Dawkins, are conspiring to air brush history to conceal the connection between Atheism and the worst atrocities of world history.

That is as dumb as saying a-unicornists are sick.. 99,99% of all murders have been comitted by them. See because you dont believe in somethings existance means nothing.. its what you DO believe that makes a difference.

Are you addressing me or the older existing thread discussing the same thing as this new thread? I just thought I'd add the content to the new thread.

I'm not even sure what point you're trying to make.

I am an atheist, BTW.

originally posted by: woogleuk
Hitler wasn't an atheist, he believed in God....he just didn't like Christianity or, apparently, Judaism very much.

"Hitler wasn't an atheist, he believed in God"

lol...That's funny...

Plain and simple, You/him or anyone else doesn't believe in "God" (or, at least the correct "God") and yet commit the acts that he and the officers under his command did.

a reply to: ArnoldNonymous

The war in the Middle East might even be considered a religious war

It IS a religious war. It is Those Zealous Sunni Muslims vs The Rest of the World.


Interesting thread, nonetheless.

Mao was a Marxist-Leninist Communist - atheism wasn't the catalyst.

Hitler was a Roman Catholic -
From Wiki, but you get the idea: In a 1928 speech he said: "We tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity ... in fact our movement is Christian."

Stalin was a Bolshevk/Communist - atheism wasn't the catalyst.

Pol Pot was a Marxist/Communist - atheism wasn't the catalyst.

Atheism is not a belief system, and has no creed. No agenda. It simply means 'No deities.'
Nobody is propelled to do anything by any kind of atheist agenda.
Atheism is the non-belief in god/s.

This is all Christian apologetic stuff deflecting from the fact that, yes Christianity did cause a lot of deaths.

originally posted by: glend
Apart from WW2, Genghis Khan with reported 20-40 million deaths takes the prize. In more recent times Belgium control of the rubber trade in congo was responsible for reported 5-22 million deaths.

link

nope, stalin beat him on that one. stalin starved the entire population of the ukraine, to death. it was one big concentration camp. men, women, children, starved slowly to death in their own homes, while the scientists of the politburo made bets on whether they would stoop to cannabalism to survive. he killed over 40 million russians, and that's not counting people of other nations he had killed, such as germans and etc.

a reply to: undo

Stalin didn't do it because of Atheism.

Big thumbs down for this OP. Atheism is not a religion or a belief system, it's a way of life, of not believing in something without proof and fighting for human rights. I don't see how being Atheist is a motivation for anyone to kill, even if it's against someone who is religious. People will always kill other people, whether on race, religion, political scuffle, gender, etc. Religion is racism. Plain and simple. It directly separates people forcing those who believe to identify themselves based on their religion. We are all human, flesh and blood and bone. We will never live in this world as a single human force with religion present.

originally posted by: Badgered1
Mao was a Marxist-Leninist Communist - atheism wasn't the catalyst.
Stalin was a Bolshevk/Communist - atheism wasn't the catalyst.
Pol Pot was a Marxist/Communist - atheism wasn't the catalyst.

Atheism is not a belief system, and has no creed. No agenda.

It was a catalyst. Part of creating communism is to remove any god and replace it with the state. If you don't give people a higher power to 'worship', you can't expect them to overrule their natural selfish tendencies, and peacefully submit to a communist system. Most just won't do it. Since they could never force all their citizens to believe in a single religion, they removed all religion, and replaced it with state worship.

a reply to: dukeofjive696969

I agree-the graphs only show recorded history.

How many were killed/sacrificed to "gods" before then?

We know that all of our ancestors were extremely superstitious-and blood thirsty.

To me,religion and superstition are the same-and equally as dangerous.

Imagine if everyone in this room that didn't think the earth was the center of the universe,or that the earth is flat-were drug off by the church's soldiers to be burned as heretics.

It really wasn't that long ago that that was happening.

a reply to: InfinityandBeyond

I don't see how being Atheist is a motivation for anyone to kill, even if it's against someone who is religious.

I think that this guy disagrees with you, lol
Warning: Extreme language... and lunacy.

a reply to: undo

Many of those 40M deaths were listed in that link under famine caused by mismanagement of food. But records of the 3 million that he did murder were recorded link which equates to the death toll caused by sanctions and war on Iraq from wmd that didn't exist! Not trying to excuse Russia's dark history only saying that Russia isn't unique in that regard.

a reply to: Daniem

Religious wars never end.

There is always a "new" religion being made up.

It may be the oldest con game in the book. (and deadliest)

a reply to: ArchangelOger

Not really sure what you are trying to say....

Christianity, Judaism, Islam, amongst others...all believe in the same God, they just follow different teachings. I think (I could be wrong), that all the Abrahamic religions follow the old testament in one form or another, after that it gets a bit squirly.

Hitler obviously found something in the old testament, and believed in the same God as all the rest of the AR groups, he just didn't follow any of the mainstream follow up religions.

ETA: and he was a total git (don't want anyone here thinking I'm some sort of neo-Nazi Hitler worshipper or something)