Difference between revisions of "Atheism and Mass Murder"

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[[Image:Stalin.jpg‎ |right|200px|thumb|[[Joseph Stalin]]'s atheistic regime killed tens of millions of people. He did not kill them because he was atheist though.]]  
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[[Image:Stalin.jpg‎ |right|200px|thumb|[[Joseph Stalin]]'s atheistic regime killed tens of millions of people.]]  
 
In respect to '''atheism and mass murder''', [[Christian apologetics|Christian apologist]] Gregory Koukl wrote that "the assertion is that religion has caused most of the killing and bloodshed in the world.
 
In respect to '''atheism and mass murder''', [[Christian apologetics|Christian apologist]] Gregory Koukl wrote that "the assertion is that religion has caused most of the killing and bloodshed in the world.
 
There are people who make accusations and assertions that are empirically false. This is one of them."<ref name="Koukl">Koukl, Gregory, [http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5527 The Real Murderers: Atheism or Christianity?], 1994</ref>
 
There are people who make accusations and assertions that are empirically false. This is one of them."<ref name="Koukl">Koukl, Gregory, [http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5527 The Real Murderers: Atheism or Christianity?], 1994</ref>
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Koukl details the number of people killed in various events involving theism and compares them to the much higher tens of millions of people killed under [[communism|communist]] [[Atheism|atheistic]] regimes.<ref name="Koukl" />  It has been estimated that in less than the past 100 years, governments under the banner of [[communism]] have caused the death of somewhere between 40,472,000 to 259,432,000 human lives.<ref>[http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/fcrevb102.html The Black Book of Communism]</ref><ref>[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm The Black Book of Communism]</ref><ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref><ref>[http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm]</ref><ref>[http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365 Memory and Ideology]</ref><ref>[http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526 The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression]</ref> Dr. R. J. Rummel, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, is the scholar who first coined the term democide (death by government). Dr. R. J. Rummel's mid estimate regarding the loss of life due to communism is that communism caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref> However, not all communist are atheist. The more notable communist,[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler's_religious_beliefs such as Hitler, were actually theistic.]
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Koukl details the number of people killed in various events involving theism and compares them to the much higher tens of millions of people killed under [[communism|communist]] [[Atheism|atheistic]] regimes.<ref name="Koukl" />  It has been estimated that in less than the past 100 years, governments under the banner of [[communism]] have caused the death of somewhere between 40,472,000 to 259,432,000 human lives.<ref>[http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/fcrevb102.html The Black Book of Communism]</ref><ref>[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm The Black Book of Communism]</ref><ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref><ref>[http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm]</ref><ref>[http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365 Memory and Ideology]</ref><ref>[http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526 The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression]</ref> Dr. R. J. Rummel, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, is the scholar who first coined the term democide (death by government). Dr. R. J. Rummel's mid estimate regarding the loss of life due to communism is that communism caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref>
  
 
Koukl summarized by stating:
 
Koukl summarized by stating:
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[[Image:Solzhenitsyn.jpg‎|thumb|150px|left|[[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]]]]
 
[[Image:Solzhenitsyn.jpg‎|thumb|150px|left|[[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]]]]
 
[[Nobel Prize]] winner [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] was asked to account for the great tragedies that occurred under the brutal communist regime he and fellow citizens suffered under.
 
[[Nobel Prize]] winner [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] was asked to account for the great tragedies that occurred under the brutal communist regime he and fellow citizens suffered under.
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Many argue that atheism is not what lead to these deaths, but communism itself is the cause of this evil.
 
  
 
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn offered the following explanation:
 
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn offered the following explanation:
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Since then I have spend well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.' <ref>https://www.rbc.org/devotionals/our-daily-bread/2000/08/13/devotion.aspx</ref>}}
 
Since then I have spend well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.' <ref>https://www.rbc.org/devotionals/our-daily-bread/2000/08/13/devotion.aspx</ref>}}
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==Explanatory links between atheism and mass murders==
 
==Explanatory links between atheism and mass murders==
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*following an ethic of atheistic evolutionism that is based on the survival and victory of the fittest, which is ultimately a "bloodthirsty ethic", the words of [[Joseph Ratzinger]], that is an ethic that is eager to kill and to maim. This ethic is about conquering others rather than self-conquest.<ref>[ Joseph Ratzinger, Truth and Tolerance http://www.zenit.org/article-13872?l=english]</ref>
 
*following an ethic of atheistic evolutionism that is based on the survival and victory of the fittest, which is ultimately a "bloodthirsty ethic", the words of [[Joseph Ratzinger]], that is an ethic that is eager to kill and to maim. This ethic is about conquering others rather than self-conquest.<ref>[ Joseph Ratzinger, Truth and Tolerance http://www.zenit.org/article-13872?l=english]</ref>
  
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==
 
 
== China ==
 
== China ==
 
The [[atheist]] [[Mao Zedong]] killed tens of millions during his [[Great Leap Forward]] and many more during the purges and slaughters of the [[Cultural revolution]].
 
The [[atheist]] [[Mao Zedong]] killed tens of millions during his [[Great Leap Forward]] and many more during the purges and slaughters of the [[Cultural revolution]].
  
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==Theism and mass murders controversy.==
 
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Many agree that theism is the cause of most pre-modern deaths. The death toll of Theism still surpasses the death toll of Atheism. While the death toll of religion is estimated by the liberals to be [http://teapotatheism.blogspot.com/2008/06/anonymous-wanted-body-count-total-so-he.html 2,229,074,100, while atheism is estimated at 95,000,000]. The theism death toll does not include the burning at the stake of heretics.
 
  
 
==See Also==
 
==See Also==

Revision as of 02:44, November 16, 2009

Joseph Stalin's atheistic regime killed tens of millions of people.

In respect to atheism and mass murder, Christian apologist Gregory Koukl wrote that "the assertion is that religion has caused most of the killing and bloodshed in the world. There are people who make accusations and assertions that are empirically false. This is one of them."[1] Koukl details the number of people killed in various events involving theism and compares them to the much higher tens of millions of people killed under communist atheistic regimes.[1] It has been estimated that in less than the past 100 years, governments under the banner of communism have caused the death of somewhere between 40,472,000 to 259,432,000 human lives.[2][3][4][5][6][7] Dr. R. J. Rummel, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, is the scholar who first coined the term democide (death by government). Dr. R. J. Rummel's mid estimate regarding the loss of life due to communism is that communism caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987.[8]

Koukl summarized by stating:

“ It is true that it's possible that religion can produce evil, and generally when we look closer at the detail it produces evil because the individual people are actually living in a rejection of the tenets of Christianity and a rejection of the God that they are supposed to be following. So it can produce it, but the historical fact is that outright rejection of God and institutionalizing of atheism actually does produce evil on incredible levels. We're talking about tens of millions of people as a result of the rejection of God.[1] ”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was asked to account for the great tragedies that occurred under the brutal communist regime he and fellow citizens suffered under.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn offered the following explanation:

“ Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: 'Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.'

Since then I have spend well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.' [9]

”

Explanatory links between atheism and mass murders

Christian philosophers and theologians explain that there are causal links between mass murder and atheism. Atheism, lack belief in God, have the following characteristics that can lend itself to mass murder and can explain why the greatest mass murderers were atheists:[10][11][12]

  • lack of recognition of an ultimate judge of moral actions and a judge who sets injustice aright in a last judgement, and thus do not recognize the immorality of murder
  • lack of seeing the importance of human beings as images of God and so easily discarding them as merely material things, products of mere chance,
  • lack of acknowledging an external standard of moral perfection, thus ending up with self-created standards which can include killing for political survival
  • absence of guidance by divine revelation of the moral law, such as "Thou shalt not kill"
  • following an ethic of atheistic evolutionism that is based on the survival and victory of the fittest, which is ultimately a "bloodthirsty ethic", the words of Joseph Ratzinger, that is an ethic that is eager to kill and to maim. This ethic is about conquering others rather than self-conquest.[13]

China

The atheist Mao Zedong killed tens of millions during his Great Leap Forward and many more during the purges and slaughters of the Cultural revolution.


See Also

v • d • e
Atheism
Atheism • Rebuttal • Morals • Academics • Quotes • Christianity • Debate • Evolution • Atheism and the suppression of science • Mass Murder • Communism • Atheist Shooters and Serial Killers • Mental and Physical Health • Miracles • Morality • Uncharitableness • Agnosticism • Deception • The Bible • The Problem of Evil • Agenda • Psychology • Population • Prison Statistics • Racism • Atheism and women • Brights Movement • Causes • Death Toll • Definitions • Evangelical atheist • Ex-atheists • Faith Freedom International • Godless: The Church of Liberalism‎ • Godless liberal • His Dark Materials • History • Liberalism • Militancy • New Atheism • Videos • Skeptics Annotated Bible • Strong atheism • The God Delusion • There Are No Atheists In Foxholes • Weak atheism 

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Koukl, Gregory, The Real Murderers: Atheism or Christianity?, 1994
  2. ↑ The Black Book of Communism
  3. ↑ The Black Book of Communism
  4. ↑ http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM
  5. ↑ Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm
  6. ↑ Memory and Ideology
  7. ↑ The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression
  8. ↑ http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM
  9. ↑ https://www.rbc.org/devotionals/our-daily-bread/2000/08/13/devotion.aspx
  10. ↑ Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli, Christian apologetics
  11. ↑ Joseph de Torre, Christian philosophy
  12. ↑ Contemporary Philosophical Issues in Historical Perspective, Manila: UA&P, 2000
  13. ↑ [ Joseph Ratzinger, Truth and Tolerance http://www.zenit.org/article-13872?l=english]
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