Body Count Totals: Religion vs Atheism

Link. The author uses the term "theists" to refer to religious believers. This is interesting,

5 comments:

Samuel Skinner said...

In due fairness to the theists, many of the listed atrocities were not caused by their theism. Of course, none where caused by a persons atheism either.

Don't try to divide it out- dividing by zero is not good for your calculator.

Shygetz said...

I really wish this entire line of argument would just die already. I understand that if Christians insist on claiming that Stalin and Pol Pot (and even the theist Hitler, go figure) reflect negatively on atheism as a philosophy, it is a valid and necessary defense to point out that theism fares much worse in such a comparison. But it's clear to me that most cases of mass war and slaughter just don't have religion as the primary, irreplacable motivator (and, of course, none have disbelief as a motivator). Can we just call for a truce on this silly line of argument and agree that authoritarian regimes, regardless of religious motivation, often do terrible things?

Rotten Arsenal said...

Hear, hear!

I second Shygetz's motion...

Unknown said...

I second shygetz on his suggestion.

Joey said...

Well said, shygetz.

I second the truce. Let's put this argument out to pasture.