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Atheism and Mass Murder (view source)
Revision as of 02:29, February 27, 2010
, 02:29, February 27, 2010no edit summary
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]].
== Criticisms of this claim ==
A common [[atheist]] argument is that morality is not tied to religion. It has evolved as a mechanism to ensure an individual's social status within a community. It's pretty obvious that communities which allow or advocate murder would have a huge disadvantage compared to another which criminalizes murder, because of the significant population loss. Thus, the community without murderers would flourish and the communities with murderers would not. For this reason, humans have evolved with an innate resistance to killing others regardless of religious beliefs.
Another argument is that the regimes run by [[Hitler]], [[Stalin]], or [[Mao Zedong]] were not atheistic. They were mass murderers not because of their religious beliefs, (or lack, thereof) but because they were power-hungry extremists. Atheism is an insignificantly small factor in the creation of these regimes. (see Godwin's law)
==See Also==
==See Also==