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''See also:'' [[State atheism]]

''See also:'' [[State atheism]]

Supreme Court Justice [[Antonin Scalia]] said that the U.S. Constitution can favor religion over "non-religion".<ref>[http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/02/justice_scalia_atheists_and_mass_murder.html Justice Scalia, Atheists, and Mass Murder] by Frank R. Gunter, ''American Thinker''</ref>  

Supreme Court Justice [[Antonin Scalia]] said that the U.S. Constitution can favor religion over "non-religion".<ref>[https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/02/justice_scalia_atheists_and_mass_murder.html Justice Scalia, Atheists, and Mass Murder] by Frank R. Gunter, ''American Thinker''</ref>  

[[Image:Stalin-140508 27880t.jpg|right|185px|thumb|[[Joseph Stalin]], the Premier of the [[Soviet Union]] from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953, patronised the [[League of Militant Atheists]], whose chief aim, under the leadership of Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, was to propagate militant [[atheism]] and eradicate [[religion]].<ref name=Hesemann-Strieber>{{cite book|author=Michael Hesemann, Whitley Strieber|title=The Fatima Secret|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=tx-BEpkJBq8C&pg=PT107&dq=Joseph+Stalin+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=-DeRTpLrJoPi0QHo88wi&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=Joseph%20Stalin%20militant%20atheism&f=false|quote=Lenin's death in 1924 was followed by the rise of Joseph Stalin, "the man of steel," who founded the "Union of Militant Atheists," whose chief aim was to spread atheism and eradicate religion. In the following years it devastated hundreds of churches, destroyed old icons and relics, and persecuted the clergy with unimaginable brutality.|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|date=2000|accessdate=9 October 2011}}</ref><ref name=Steeves>{{cite book|author=Paul D. Steeves|title=Keeping the faiths: religion and ideology in the Soviet Union|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=l7soAAAAYAAJ&q=%22When+a+priest+is+deprived+of+his+congregation,+that+does+not%22&dq=%22When+a+priest+is+deprived+of+his+congregation,+that+does+not%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_ijVUemwOoXRyQGqkICwBA&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAQ|quote=The League of Militant Atheists was formed in 1926 and by 1930 had recruited three million members. Five years later there were 50,000 local groups affiliated to the League and the nominal membership had risen to five million. Children from 8-14 years of age were enrolled in Groups of Godless Youth, and the League of Communist Youth (Komsomol) took a vigorous anti- religious line. Several antireligious museums were opened in former churches and a number of Chairs of Atheism were established in Soviet universities. Prizes were offered for the best 'Godless hymns' and for alternative versions of the Bible from which ... the leader of the League of Militant Atheists, Yemelian Yaroslavsky, said: "When a priest is deprived of his congregation, that does not mean that he stops being a priest. He changes into an itinerant priest. He travels around with his primitive tools in the villages, performs religious rites, reads prayers, baptizes children. Such wandering priests are at times more dangerous than those who carry on their work at a designated place of residence." The intensified persecution, which was a part of the general terror inflicted upon Soviet society by Stalin's policy, ...|publisher=Holmes & Meier|date=1989|accessdate=4 July 2013}}</ref>]]

[[Image:Stalin-140508 27880t.jpg|right|185px|thumb|[[Joseph Stalin]], the Premier of the [[Soviet Union]] from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953, patronised the [[League of Militant Atheists]], whose chief aim, under the leadership of Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, was to propagate militant [[atheism]] and eradicate [[religion]].<ref name=Hesemann-Strieber>{{cite book|author=Michael Hesemann, Whitley Strieber|title=The Fatima Secret|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tx-BEpkJBq8C&pg=PT107&dq=Joseph+Stalin+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=-DeRTpLrJoPi0QHo88wi&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=Joseph%20Stalin%20militant%20atheism&f=false|quote=Lenin's death in 1924 was followed by the rise of Joseph Stalin, "the man of steel," who founded the "Union of Militant Atheists," whose chief aim was to spread atheism and eradicate religion. In the following years it devastated hundreds of churches, destroyed old icons and relics, and persecuted the clergy with unimaginable brutality.|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|date=2000|accessdate=9 October 2011}}</ref><ref name=Steeves>{{cite book|author=Paul D. Steeves|title=Keeping the faiths: religion and ideology in the Soviet Union|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l7soAAAAYAAJ&q=%22When+a+priest+is+deprived+of+his+congregation,+that+does+not%22&dq=%22When+a+priest+is+deprived+of+his+congregation,+that+does+not%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_ijVUemwOoXRyQGqkICwBA&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAQ|quote=The League of Militant Atheists was formed in 1926 and by 1930 had recruited three million members. Five years later there were 50,000 local groups affiliated to the League and the nominal membership had risen to five million. Children from 8-14 years of age were enrolled in Groups of Godless Youth, and the League of Communist Youth (Komsomol) took a vigorous anti- religious line. Several antireligious museums were opened in former churches and a number of Chairs of Atheism were established in Soviet universities. Prizes were offered for the best 'Godless hymns' and for alternative versions of the Bible from which ... the leader of the League of Militant Atheists, Yemelian Yaroslavsky, said: "When a priest is deprived of his congregation, that does not mean that he stops being a priest. He changes into an itinerant priest. He travels around with his primitive tools in the villages, performs religious rites, reads prayers, baptizes children. Such wandering priests are at times more dangerous than those who carry on their work at a designated place of residence." The intensified persecution, which was a part of the general terror inflicted upon Soviet society by Stalin's policy, ...|publisher=Holmes & Meier|date=1989|accessdate=4 July 2013}}</ref>]]

Frank R. Gunter wrote in the ''American Thinker'':

Frank R. Gunter wrote in the ''American Thinker'':

{{Cquote|Why should the Constitution favor religious belief over unbelief -- [[atheism]]? History provides an answer. Many atheists are fond of reminding people that when it comes to crimes against humanity, Christianity has much to answer for including the Thirty Years War, the Inquisition, and involvement with slavery. But two out of three of the [[Atheism and Mass Murder|worst mass murderers in all of history were atheists]] and the third might best be described as pagan.

{{Cquote|Why should the Constitution favor religious belief over unbelief -- [[atheism]]? History provides an answer. Many atheists are fond of reminding people that when it comes to crimes against humanity, Christianity has much to answer for including the Thirty Years War, the Inquisition, and involvement with slavery. But two out of three of the [[Atheism and Mass Murder|worst mass murderers in all of history were atheists]] and the third might best be described as pagan.

These truths are self-evident to Christians and Jews who believe that everyone is endowed with an immortal soul; that everyone deserves to be treated as an end -- not as a means. But the basic equality of man is not self-evident to an atheist who depends only on personal observation or scientific enquiry to discover truth.

These truths are self-evident to Christians and Jews who believe that everyone is endowed with an immortal soul; that everyone deserves to be treated as an end -- not as a means. But the basic equality of man is not self-evident to an atheist who depends only on personal observation or scientific enquiry to discover truth.

According to Rummel’s Death by Government, Stalin’s Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – an atheist state -- murdered about 62 million of its own people during its 75 years of existence. Between 1948 and 1976, another explicitly atheist state, Mao’s People’s Republic of China murdered 35 million of its own people primarily through deliberate starvation.<ref>[http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/02/justice_scalia_atheists_and_mass_murder.html Justice Scalia, Atheists, and Mass Murder] by Frank R. Gunter, ''American Thinker''</ref>}}

According to Rummel’s Death by Government, Stalin’s Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – an atheist state -- murdered about 62 million of its own people during its 75 years of existence. Between 1948 and 1976, another explicitly atheist state, Mao’s People’s Republic of China murdered 35 million of its own people primarily through deliberate starvation.<ref>[https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/02/justice_scalia_atheists_and_mass_murder.html Justice Scalia, Atheists, and Mass Murder] by Frank R. Gunter, ''American Thinker''</ref>}}

==References==

==References==