Murders by Atheist...?

[and-justice-for-all]

I am working on a paper which I am arguing for Atheism, and while I was looking for statistics on the number of people killed in the name of religion/gawd, I came across this piece of shit:

Murders by Atheists (20th Century) Country Dates Murders
Afghanistan 1978–1992 1,750,000
Albania 1944–1985 100,000
Angola 1975–2002 125,000
Bulgaria 1944–1989 222,000
China/PRC 1923–2007 76,702,000
Cuba 1959–1992 73,000
Czechoslovakia 1948–1968 65,000
Ethiopia 1974–1991 1,343,610
France 1793–1794 40,000
Greece 1946–1949 20,000
Hungary 1948–1989 27,000
Kampuchea/Cambodia 1973–1991 2,627,000
Laos 1975–2007 93,000
Mongolia 1926–2007 100,000
Mozambique 1975–1990 118,000
North Korea 1948–2007 3,163,000
Poland 1945–1948 1,607,000
Romania 1948–1987 438,000
Spain (Republic) 1936–1939 102,000
U.S.S.R. 1917–1987 61,911,000
Vietnam 1945–2007 1,670,000
Yugoslavia 1944–1980 1,072,000
http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/atrocities.html

Those nuumbers come from a book called "The Irrational Atheist" by Vox Day, I do not believe that all of that was caused by some ones lack of belief in the supernatural

[darkstar3]

1. Take a look at the countries and dates.

This isn't a compilation of deaths due to atheism. It's a compilation of the deaths that occurred in Communist countries or countries that were attacked/invaded by Communist countries.

Once again, idiots can't tell the difference between a totalitarian political ideology and lack of belief. I blame the fact that many Christians (the kind you'll find all over godandscience.org) are actually participating in a totalitarian political ideology right now.

Oh, and BTW, you stepped in something and dragged it all the way here for the rest of us to smell.

[laconicsax]

2. Smells humble...

[darkstar3]

3. I had the same thought.

[cleanhippie]

9. hahahaha!

militant atheist!

[DavidDvorkin]

4. It goes beyond the confusion that darkstar3 refers to

Even if atheists were the killers in all of those cases, they didn't kill because of their atheism. It's irrelevant to the killings.

Theists have killed vast numbers because of their religious beliefs.

[laconicsax]

5. Don't you know?

Religion is perfect. Bad things only happen because of human involvement.

[Warpy]

8. Exactly, and most of those "murders" were due to a combination of factors

war with capitalist countries bent on destroying them; bad central planning and hamfisted collectivization; lousy weather creating poor harvests; and the simple social and economic dislocation of upsetting the apple cart completely, putting people into power who had no idea how to do their jobs, simply because they had not been part of the old order.

The same sort of percentages of population expressed as a death toll can be found in the French Revolution and Reign of Terror and for many of the same reasons. Some 40,000 were killed outright and many more starved for basic lack of goods and services.

No one, however, murdered simply because lack of fear of a sky daddy made their basest instincts surface. Those instincts have never had a problem surfacing in the godly, after all.

[immoderate]

6. Vox Day means "voice of god."

One very creepy apologist.

--imm

[DavidDvorkin]

7. Vox Dei in Latin, I think

So Vox Day is a play on the Latin.

[Kolesar]

10. the Soviets had anti-Chrisitan indoctrination

However, I don't recall that believers were incarcerated, killed, or sent to the gulag for "believing".

I read the Gulag Archipelago, by Solzhenitsyn, btw

[realisticphish]

12. great book

"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" is fantastic, as well, if you want a fictionalized version. Quick read, and excellent

[Kolesar]

13. I read everything Solzhenitsyn published in this country

I spent my allowance on his books when I was a teenager. When I was in college, a professor had a literature course with several of his novels.

By coincidence, I was in Vermont when he passed away a few years ago. He was back in Russia then.

[backscatter712]

11. A little snippet from The God Virus's author, Darrel Ray.

He mentioned that Marxism is as much of a memetic virus as any religion - people get just as fanatical, shut off their reason, treat the leaders of Marxist movements - Lenin, Stalin, Kim Jong Ill, Mao Zedong, as gods, and venerate them as gods.

The psychological behavior of Marxist/Maoist movements is very similar to the psychological characteristics of the God virus.

Marxism is religion, with the serial numbers filed off.

Real atheism has little patience for that.

[onager]

14. That list is weird...

Vox Day-O, D-a-a-a-y-O must be a 15-yr-old who just read "The Naked Communist" for the first time. Or some similar John Birch fantasy.

Speaking of fantasies, I just took a closer look at that list...

Afghanistan 1978–1992 1,750,000 - neither date makes any sense. If he's got a bitch with the godless Russkis, they had been sending aid to Afghanistan since 1919 - right after their own Revolution. The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was formed in 1978, but that was just another in a long line of coups. Another coup in '79 caused the Russian invasion, since the coup-ee was held in high regard by 900-year-old and senile Leonid Breshnev. The Russians left in 1989. Religious enthusiasts took over after that, and of course the country has been peaceful ever since.

China/PRC 1923–2007 76,702,000 - the PRC wasn't established until 1949, when the nominally Xian Chiang Kai-Shek was finally kicked out of the country. He went to Taiwan and massacred a lot of locals, but they are Off-Brand Chinese and don't count, I guess. "1923?" China was a lot like Afghanistan back then, fought over by competing warlords. The Xian West (and Japan) invaded China during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion, but apparently nobody died.

Czechoslovakia 1948–1968 65,000 - Czechoslovakia was officially Communist until 1989. That's 21 years of murders unaccounted for!

Laos 1975–2007 93,000 - the armed Laotian Communist branch, the Pathet Lao, was formed in 1950. 25 years of murders unaccounted for!

U.S.S.R. 1917–1987 61,911,000 - wonder if that includes the 20 million killed by Xian Germany from 1941-45?

Yugoslavia 1944–1980 1,072,000 - Yugoslavia 1991-97, about 700,000. Once the Evil Commies were gone and those friendly, non-violent negotiations took place between Serbia (Orthodox), Croatia (Catholic) and Bosnia (Muslim).

[laconicsax]

15. It just goes to show...

When it comes to promoting that atheism=murder, lying is par for the course.

[and-justice-for-all]

16. Indeed.nt