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*{{cite web |title=The Black Book of Communism The Human cost of Communism - 100 Million||url=http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/04/289239.html|accessdate=May 23, 2015|date=2004-04-April 14, 2004|publisher=IndyMedia}}

[[Human rights]] are the basic [[rights]] and [[freedom]]s to which all humans are entitled, entirely by virtue of their status as human beings(see: [[Atheism and human worth]]).

''See also:'' [[Atheism and Mass Murder|Atheism and mass murder]] and [[Atheist atrocities]] and [[Atheism and sociopathy#Atheistic communism, mass murder and sociopathic leaders|Atheistic communism, mass murder and sociopathic leaders]]

There are people who make accusations and assertions that are empirically false. This is one of them."<ref name="Koukl">Koukl, Gregory (February 20, 2013). [httphttps://www.str.org/sitearticles/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5527 the-real-murderers-atheism-or-christianity#.XPtRihZKiCo "The real murderers: atheism or Christianity?"] Stand to Reason website. Retrieved July 19June 8, 20142019.</ref>

[[Communist]] regimes killed 60 million in the 20th century through [[genocide]], according to ''Le Monde'', more than 100 million people<ref group=note>"[[China]]: 65 million [[mass murder|deaths]]; [[USSR]]: 20 million deaths; [[North Korea]]: 2 million deaths; [[Cambodia]]: 2 million deaths; [[Africa]]: 1.7 million deaths; [[Afghanistan]]: 1.5 million deaths; [[Vietnam]]: 1 million deaths; [[Eastern Europe]]: 1 million deaths; [[Latin America]]: 150,000 deaths; [[Communist]] movements or parties not in power: about 10,000 deaths. "Nearly 100 million deaths. Not casualties of war, but [[mass murder|civilian slaughter]]. Deaths in [[gulag]]s and [[concentration camp]]s. Deaths from a bullet to the head. Most of all, deaths by [[starvation]] - the result either of planned [[famine]]s, meted out as punishment to internal foes (as in [[Stalin]]'s USSR), or unintended consequences of [[central planning|central policy]]." Wolfe, Claire (2000). [https://web.archive.org/web/20071023054343/http://www.jpfo.org/wolfe-blackbook.htm "Review of ''The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression'' by Stéphane Courtois et al., trans. by Jonathan Murphy and Mark Kramer"]. Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership website. Retrieved from October 23, 2007 archive at Internet Archive on May 21, 2015.</ref> according to ''The Black Book of Communism'' (Courtois, Stéphane, and Werth et al., 1997).<ref>Available at:* Courtois, Stéphaneand Werth, Nicholas et al. (1999). [https://archive.org/stream/TheBlackBookofCommunism10/the-black-book-of-communism-jean-louis-margolin-1999-communism_djvu.txt ''The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression''], trans. by Jonathan Murphy and Mark Kramer (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press). Book archived at Internet Archive. Accessed December 3, 2014.* Courtois, Stéphaneand Werth, Nicholas et al. (1999). [https://www.amazon.com/The-Black-Book-Communism-Repression/dp/0674076087 ''The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression''], trans. by Jonathan Murphy and Mark Kramer (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press). Amazon.com book page. Retrieved on May 22, 2015.</ref> and according to [[Cleon Skousen]]<ref group=note>Father of [[anti-Communist]] [[conservative]] [[libertarian]] [[:Category:Survivalism|survivalist]] author [[Joel Skousen]].</ref> in his best-selling book ''[[The Naked Communist]]''.<ref>In July 2014, the noted [[African-American]] surgeon and political commentator, Dr. [[Ben Carson]], appeared on [[Fox News]] and said, "''The Naked Communist'' lays out the whole [[progressive]] agenda." ["Megan Kelly interview of Ben Carson"] (July 16, 2014). ''The Kelly File''. Fox News Channel. Republished as [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_Rn1K5uLzs "The Kelly File with Dr. Ben Carson and The Naked Communist"] (November 4, 2014). YouTube video, 6:31, posted by Izzard Ink.</ref>

It is estimated that in the past 100 years, governments under the banner of atheistic [[communism]] have caused the death of somewhere between 40,472,000 and 259,432,000 human lives.<ref name=blackbook/> 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 range of computations of loss of life due to communism is that communism caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987.<ref>Rummel, R. J. (November 1993). [http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM "How many did communist regimes murder?"] University of Hawaii website; Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War. Retrieved July 19, 2014.</ref> [[File:Vox Day.jpg|thumbnail|right|160px|[[Vox Day|Theodore Beale]] ]]

[[Vox Day|Theodore Beale]] notes concerning atheism and mass murder:{{cquote|Apparently it was just an amazing coincidence that every Communist of historical note publicly declared his atheism … .there have been twenty-eight countries in world history that can be confirmed to have been ruled by regimes with avowed atheists at the helm … These twenty-eight historical regimes have been ruled by eighty-nine atheists, of whom more than half have engaged in democidal acts of the sort committed by [[Joseph Stalin |Stalin]] and [[Mao Zedong|Mao]] …

The historical record of collective atheism is thus 182,716 times worse on an annual basis than Christianity’s worst and most infamous misdeed, the [[Spanish Inquisition]]. It is not only Stalin and Mao who were so murderously inclined, they were merely the worst of the whole [[Atheism and Hell|Hell-bound lot]]. For every [[Pol Pot ]] whose infamous name is still spoken with horror today, there was a Mengistu, a Bierut, and a Choibalsan, godless men whose names are now forgotten everywhere but in the lands they once ruled with a red hand.

*[[Vox Day]] (Theodore Beale) (2008). ''The Irrational Atheist: Dissecting the Unholy Trinity of Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens'' (Dallas, TX: BenBella Books), p. 17.

*Tallet, Frank (1991). [https://books.google.com/books?id=aL4lsWdd-rAC&dq=&hl=en ''Religion, Society and Politics in France Since 1789.''] (Unknown cityLondon: Continuum International PublishingA&C Black), rev. ed., pp. 1-17.*SPIELVOGELSpielvogel, Jackson J. (2006). [https://books.google.com/books?id=ni4PSpOxb6MC&dq ''Western Civilization: Combined Volume''] (Belmont CA: Thomson Wadsworth), 6th ed., p. 549, 2005,Thomson Wadsworth.*Latreille, A. (2002 or bef.). "French Revolution". ''New Catholic Encyclopedia'' (Unknown cityDetroit: Thompson/Gale, 2002), 2nd ed., v. 5, pp. 972–973. ISBN 0-7876-4004-2</ref> (anti-clerical [[deism]] and anti-religious atheism during the Enlightenment played a significant role in the French Revolution<ref>Multiple references:

*O'Leary, Margaret R. (bef. June 1, 2012). ''Forging Freedom: The Life of Cerf Berr of M DelsheimMédelsheim''. iUniverse website. (Unknown locationBloomington IN: Unknown publisherIUniverse), pp. 1-2. Retrieved June 1, 2012</ref>), with the official ideology being the [[Cult of Reason]]; during this time thousands of believers were suppressed and executed by the [[guillotine]].<ref group = note>Multiple notes:<!-- Guillotine -->*{{cite web|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bf3m7IVAa9gC&pg=PA461&dq=France+atheism+guillotine++Christians+executed&hl=en&sa=X&ei=l4lUUaTRBufG0QGe0IHACA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=France%20atheism%20guillotine%20%20Christians%20executed&f=false|title =''Christianity: The eBook''|authorlast=James Adair|first=James|publisher = JBE Online Books|year=2007|quote=Although the Civil Constitution called for religious liberty, which was extended to Jews as well as Christians, many revolutionaries pushed for the establishment of a new state religion, either the Cult of Reason (atheists) or the Cult of the Supreme Being (Deists). Changes to the calendar eliminated references to Christian holidays, and even the ancient seven-day week, and a list of officially recognized saints included such famous thinkers such as Socrates, Jesus, Marcus Aurelius, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. A period of political persecution, often with religious overtones, broke out, known as the Reign of Terror. Thousands of people were executed by the guillotine, including many of the original leaders of the French Revolution.|pages=461|accessdate = July 18, 2014}}

<!-- France -->*{{cite web|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9WkBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA105&dq=Reign+of+Terror+atheism&hl=en&sa=X&ei=HoRUUcD0NeXX0gGNo4HIDQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Reign%20of%20Terror%20atheism&f=false|title =''Memoirs of the Reign of George III. to the Session of Parliament ending A.D. 1793'', Volume 5|page=105|authorfirst=William |last=Belsham|publisher = G.G. & J. Robinson|year=1801|quote=In allusion to the monstrous transactions of this portentous period, it has been eloquently and energetically observed, 'that the reign of atheism in France was avowed the reign of terror. In the full madness of their career, in the highest climax of their horrors, they shut up the temples of God, abolished His worship, and proclaimed death to be an eternal sleep:—in the very centre of Christendom, Revelation underwent a total eclipse, while atheism, performing on a darkened theatre its strange and fearful tragedy, confounded the first elements of society, blended every age, rank, and sex, in indiscriminate proscription and massacre, and convulsed all Europe to its centre, that the imperishable memorial of these events might teach the last generations of mankind to consider religion as the pillar of society, the parent of social order, and the safe-guard of nations.':"It is wonderful that, amid the horrors of this dismal period, while 'the death dance of democratic revolution' was still in rapid movement, among the tears of affliction, and the cries of despair, 'the masque, the song, the theatric scene, the buffoon laughter, went on as regularly as in the gay hour of festive peace.'|pages=105–6|accessdate = July 18, 2014}}<!-- Reign of Terror -->:*{{cite webbook no ws|title=Christianity, Islam, and Atheism: The Struggle for the Soul of the West|first=William|last=Kilpatrick|location=San Francisco, CA|publisher=Ignatius Press|year=2012|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Tt5rqiCP1p8C&pg=PA57&dq=Reign+of+Terror+atheism&hl=en&sa=X&ei=HoRUUcD0NeXX0gGNo4HIDQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Reign%20of%20Terror%20atheism&f=false|title =''Christianity, Islam, and Atheism: The Struggle for the Soul of the West''|author=William Kilpatrick|publisher = Ignatius Press|year=2012|quote=Actually, it's helpful to think in terms of two Enlightenments: the Enlightenment that was nourished by Christianity and the Enlightenment that cut itself off from God. The former led to the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, the abolition of slavery, and the civil rights movement. The latter led to the French Revolution, the Reign of Terror, the suppression of church by state, and the godless philosophies of Marx and Nietzsche and their offspring—National Socialism and communism. More recently the abandonment of God has led to the regime of cultural relativism that regards rights as arbitrary constructs.:"It's this second Enlightenment tradition that Cardinal Ratzinger referred to when he wrote, 'The radical detachment of the Enlightenment philosophy from its roots ultimately leads it to dispense with man.' Actually this transition happened not 'ultimately' but almost immediately. The first instance occurred when Enlightenment worship of abstract 'reason' and 'liberty' degenerated quickly into the mass murders committed during the antireligious Reign of Terror in France. 'Liberty, what crimes are committed in your name', said Madam Rolande Madame Roland as she faced the statue of Liberty in the Place de la Revolution moments before her death at the guillotine. She was one of the early victims of a succession of secular systems based on rootless notions of 'liberty', 'equality', and 'reason'.:"As many historians have pointed out, the atheist regimes of modern times are guilty of far more crimes than any committed in the name of religion. Communist governments alone were guilty of more than one hundred million murders, most of them committed against their own people.|pages=p. 57|accessdate = July 18, 2014}}</ref>Although Communism is one of the most well-known cases of atheism's ties to mass murder, the French Revolution and subsequent Reign of Terror, inspired by the works of [[Denis Diderot|Diderot]], [[Voltaire]], [[Marquis de Sade|Sade]], and [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau|Rousseau]], managed to commit similar persecutions and exterminations of religious people and promote secularism and militant atheism. Official numbers indicate that 300,000 Frenchmen died during [[Maximilien Robespierre|Robespierre]]'s Reign of Terror, 297,000 of which were of middle-class or low-class.<ref name="A Primer of the Illuminati">McIlheny, William H. (June 12, 2009). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/history/item/4660-a-primer-on-the-illuminati "A primer on the Illuminati"]. The New American website. Retrieved on May 22, 2015.</ref> Of the amount numbers murdered via the guillotine, only 8% had been of the aristocratic class, with over 30% being from the peasant class.<ref name="Operation Parricide">von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Erik (October 1989). [httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20050309031846/https://culturewars.com/CultureWars/Archives/Fidelity_archives/parricide.html "Operation Parricide: Sade, Robespierre & the French Revolution"]. ''Fidelity'' magazine. Retrieved from Culture Wars website on May 22, 2015.</ref>

One of the most well known cases of mass murder during the French Revolution was the [[Vendée rebellion|genocide at Vendée]], which has yet to be officially recognized as genocide. Some estimates indicated that Robespierre and the [[Jacobins ]] planned to massacre well over 15,000,000 Frenchmen,<ref name="A Primer of the Illuminati"/> and that he also intended to commit genocide against the Alsace region of France due to their German-speaking populace.<ref name="Operation Parricide"/> Besides the guillotine, the French Revolution also resulted in various other deaths, including trampling children with horses, burning people in ovens, "Republican Marriages" (which involved stripping people naked, tying them together to a log in a suggestive fashion, and then putting them into the water to drown. In the event that there wasn't enough people of both sexes, they also resorted to "tying the knot" in a homosexual manner), cutting recently raped girls in half after tying them to a tree, crushing pregnant women under wine pressers, cutting up pregnant women and using bayonets to stab the fetus inside before leaving her to die, "catching" infants thrown from a balcony with their bayonets, and using shotguns to ensure people bled out to death.<ref name="Operation Parricide"/>

The aforementioned actions during the French Revolution, especially the Reign of Terror in 1793, would also inspire Karl Marx with in composing of the [[Communist manifestoManifesto]], specifically telling [[Friedrich Engels|Frederick Engels ]] in correspondences to each other: “There is only one way of shortening, simplifying, and concentrating the bloodthirsty death-throes of the old society and the bloody birth pangs of the new—revolutionary terror. . . . [...] Once we are at the helm, we shall be obliged to reenact the year 1793. [...] We are pitiless and we ask no pity from you. When our time comes, we shall not conceal terrorism with hypocritical phrases. . . The vengeance of the people will break forth with such ferocity that not even the year 1793 enables us to envisage it...”<ref>Socialism Sucks community (April 30, 2014).[https://www.facebook.com/373757305985421/photos/a.373910375970114.102939.373757305985421/819295658098248/?type=1 "Marxism in America"]. Facebook website. Retrieved on May 22, 2015.</ref>

The website Victimsofcommunism.org of Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation declares concerning atheistic communism and the use of [[torture]]:{{cquote|Significantly, communists did not merely try to block or halt religious faith but to reverse it. This was particularly true for [[Romania]], even before the [[Nicolae Ceausescu|Nicolai Ceaușescu ]] era. This meant not just forbidding religious practice and jailing ministers and believers but employing torture to force them to renounce their faith. It was not enough to contain, silence, even punish believers in prison; it was decided they must be tortured in truly unimaginably degrading ways to attempt to undo religious faith.<ref>Kengor, Paul (September 23, 2014 or bef.) [http://victimsofcommunism.org/the-war-on-religion/ "The War war on religion".]Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation website. Archived at Internet Archive on September 23, 2014.</ref>}}

The communists wished to compel him to betray his brethren, but he resisted steadfastly. In the end, they brought his fourteen year-old son and began to whip the boy in front of his father, saying that they would continue to beat him until the pastor said what they wished him to say....When he could not stand it any more, he cried to his son; 'Alexander, I must say what they want! I can’t bear your beating any more.'

I often asked the torturers, “Don’t 'Don’t you have pity in your hearts?” ' They usually answered with a quotation from Lenin that “you 'you cannot make omelets without breaking the shells of eggs”eggs'...

I have testified before the Internal Security Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate. There I described awful things, such as Christians tied to crosses for four days and nights. The crosses were put on the floor and hundreds of prisoners had to fulfill their bodily necessities over the faces and bodies of the crucified ones. Then the crosses were erected again and the communists jeered and mocked...<ref>Wurmbrand, Pastor Richard [founder of Voice of the Martyrs] (1967). [http://www.crossroad.to/heaven/Excerpts/books/faith_under_fire/wurmbrand-tortured.htm Tortured for Christ - "excerpt from Chapter ch. 2, by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, founder of Voice of the Martyrs".]''Tortured for Christ'' (London: Hodder & Stoughten), ch. 2. Reprinted at Kjos Ministries website/heaven/excerpts/books/faith under fire.</ref>}}

[[File:Martyred in the USSR Poster.jpg|thumbnail|right|200px|The above photograph shows the Russian Nikolai Khmara, a new Baptist convert in the [[Soviet Union]], after his arrest by the [[KGB]]. He was tortured to death and his tongue cut out.<ref>Double references:*Gonzales, Kevin (January 29, 2013 or bef.). [http://martyredintheussr.com/ "Martyred in the USSRMilitant Atheism in the former Soviet Union, Russian Orthodox church, religious persecution, atheist"]</ref><ref>Martyred in the USSR website.*Hoover, Peter with Petrov, Serguei V. (2005). [http://www.anabaptists.org/books/russians/trs-1.html "Anabaptists: The Russians' Secret by Peter Hoover with Serguei V. Petrov, -- Speaking Without without a Tongue".] ''The Russians' Secret: What Christians Today Would Survive Persecution?'' Anabaptists.org website/books/Russians (Shippensburg, Chapter PA: Benchmark Press, 1999), ch. 1 (Pages , pp. 1-3)].</ref> ]]

In the atheistic [[communism|communist]] regime of the [[Soviet Union]], torture was frequently employed to extract false confessions which were subsequently used to establish that individuals were "enemies of the people" - particularly under the [[Militant atheism|militant atheist]] [[Joseph Stalin]]'s regime.<ref>[[Alexander Solzhenitsyn|Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr]](1973). "''[[The Gulag Archipelago"]], 1918-1956'', trans. Thomas P. Whitney and Harry Willetts (New York: Harper & Row, 1985).</ref>

In the Soviet Union, many [[Orthodox Christianity|Orthodox]] priests and laymen experienced religious persecution in the form of torture and being sent to prison camps, [[Atheism and forced labor|labor camps]] or mental hospitals.<ref name="ReferenceA">Multiple references:*Father Arseny 1893-1973 Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Father. Introduction pg. vi - 1. St Vladimir's Seminary Press ISBN 0-88141-180-9</ref><ref name="lalex">*Alexeyeva, Lyudmila (1984). [http://old.memo.ru/history/diss/books/alexeewa/index.htm ''History of Dissident Movement in the USSR'' [Russian language&#93;] (Benson VT: Khronika Press). Reprinted at Memorial (society) [archival] website.</ref><ref name="gins">*Ginzburg, Alexander (November 2000). [http://www.index.org.ru/journal/11/ginzburg.html A.Ginzbourg, "Record of censorship/Only one year- 1976", ".] ''Index" Magazine, in '' [RussianLanguage]<, republished at ''Index'' magazine website/ref><ref name="washingtonpostGinzburg.com">*Sullivan, Patricia (November 26, 2006). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/25/ "Anti-Communist priest Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa".] ''The Washington Post'' website (Washington D.C.: unknown publisher), p. C09</ref>

According to a 2012 Worldwide Independent Network/Gallup International Association (WIN/GIA) poll, 47% of Chinese people were convinced atheists, and a further 30% were not religious. In comparison, only 14% considered themselves to be religious.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130524174009/http://www.winmr.com/web/files/news/14/file/14.pdf ''Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism''] (July 27, 2012). PDF file (Worldwide Independent Network/Gallup International), p. 3. Republished at ''Worldwide Independent Network of Market Research and Opinion Poll'' website. Archived at ''Internet Archive'' website on May 24, 2013.</ref> See: [[China and atheism]] The Chinese communist regime has used beatings, harassment and torture to suppress religion in China and continues to use these practices.<ref name="Amnesty1">{{Cite web|url=Multiple references:*Amnesty International (March 23, 2000). [http://www.refworld.org/docid/3b83b6e00.html |title="China: The crackdown on Falun Gong and other so-called "'heretical organizations'"|date=23 March 2000|publisher=] (Amnesty International|accessdate=), republished at Refworld website. Retrieved March 17 March , 2010}}</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube*Danilova, Maria (November 26, 2018).com/watch?v=2AESx5u6yMw Militant Atheist extremist regime persecuting and torturing Christians in China]</ref><ref>[https://www.apnews.com/61cdf7f5dfc34575aa643523b3c6b3fe "Woman describes torture, beatings in Chinese detention camp"] By MARIA DANILOVA, AP News, November 26, 2018website.</ref>

[[North Korea]] practices [[state atheism]] and belief in [[God]] is actively discouraged.<ref group=note> Raum, Elizabeth Raum(2012). North Korea. Series: ''Countries Around the World. '' series, ''North Korea'' (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann), 2012p. 28; ISBN 1432961330. p. 28: «North ; "North Korea is an atheist state. This means that people do not pray in public or attend places of worship. Buddhist temples exist from earlier times. They are now preserved as historic buildings, but they are not used for worship. A few Christian churches exist, but few people attend services. North Koreans do not celebrate religious holidays.»"</ref> Open Doors, an organization based in the United States, has put North Korea at the very top of its list of countries where [[Christianity|Christians]] face significant persecution - for 12 years in a row.<ref>[http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-10-22/repressive-atheist-north-korea-has-surprising-relationship-christian-missionaries Repressive, atheist North Korea has a surprising relationship with Christian missionaries]</ref>

{{cquote|More than 200,000 North Koreans, including children, are imprisoned in camps where many perish from forced labor, inadequate food, and abuse by guards, according to [[Human Rights Watch]]. The isolated, secretive nation has no media, functioning civil society, or religious freedom, and pervasive problems include arbitrary arrest, lack of due process, and torture.<ref>Koonse, Emma (May 6, 2015). [http://www.christianpost.com/news/north-korean-defector-who-spent-28-years-in-prison-camp-details-starvation-torture-and-cannibalism-in-the-dprk-138746/ "North Korean defector who spent 28 years in prison camp details hunger, torture, and cannibalism in the DPRK"]. The Christian Post website/CP World.</ref>}}

== Atheism and slavery/forced labor == '''See also:''' [[Atheism and slavery]] and [[Atheism and forced labor]] [[China]], [[North Korea]] and [[Vietnam]] practice [[state atheism]] (see: [[State atheism]]). According to the Global Slavery index website: "The Global Slavery Index estimates that on any given day in 2016 there were over 3.8 million people living in conditions of modern slavery in China, a prevalence of 2.8 victims for every thousand people in the country. This estimate does not include figures on organ trafficking."<ref>[https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/country-studies/china/ China - prevalence of slavery]</ref> According to the Global Slavery Index website: "The newly released 2018 Global Slavery Index names North Korea and [[Eritrea]] as the two nations with the world’s highest rates of modern slavery, emphasizing how conflict and government repression contribute to the crime.<ref>[https://www.freedomunited.org/news/2018-global-slavery-index-north-korea-worlds-worst-offender/ 2018 Global Slavery Index: North Korea World's Worst Offender]</ref> In 2019, the website Global Slavery Index estimated that there are 421,000 slaves in Vietnam.<ref>[https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/regional-analysis/asia-and-the-pacific/ Global Slavery Index = Asia and the Pacific]</ref> Due to political repression, government corruption and the persecution of the religious, a portion of the individuals in China, North Korea and Vietnam, are under government run forced labor (see: [[Atheism and forced labor]]). For more information, please see: *[[Atheism and slavery]] *[[Atheism and forced labor]] === Atheistic China, political prisoners and forced labor in prisons ===

[[File:Flag of the PRC.png|thumbnail|200px|leftright|According to [[CNN]], hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of labor camps and forced labor prisons (called laogai) still exist in modern [[China]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/china.50/red.giant/prisons/wu.essay/ |title=Labor camps reinforce China's totalitarian rule |publisher=Cnn.com |date=1984-10-09 |accessdate=2013-03-20}}</ref>]] [[China]] has the world's largest [[atheism|atheist]] population.<ref>Double references:*[http://www.thechapmans.nl/news/Atheist.pdf "Top 20 Countries With Largest Numbers of Atheists / Agnostics (Zuckerman, 2005)"] (November 28, 2007). ''The Largest Atheist/Agnostic Populations''. Chris & Terri Chapman website (March 19, 2013 or bef.), first publication date at website from archive at Internet Archive.*[https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/23/a-surprising-map-of-where-the-worlds-atheists-live/ A surprising map of where the world’s atheists live], ''Washington Post'' By Max Fisher and Caitlin Dewey May 23, 2013</ref> See: [[China and atheism]]

Most atheists are [[East Asia]]ns (see: contains about 25 percent of the world’s population. China’s population represents 20 percent of the people on earth.<ref>[[Asian atheism]])http://www.sbts.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2015/10/Pages-from-SBJT-V15-N2_Terry.pdf The Growth of Christianity in East Asia]</ref>

Razib Khan points out in ''Discover'' magazine, "most [[Chinasecular]] has nations in the world's largest are those of East Asia, in particular what are often termed “[[atheismConfucianism|atheistConfucian]] populationsocieties.<ref>” It is likely therefore that the majority of the world’s [http://www[Atheism|atheists]] are actually East Asian.thechapmans.nl/news/Atheist.pdf Top 50 Countries With Highest Proportion of Atheists / Agnostics (Zuckerman, 2005)]</ref>"<ref>[httpshttp://wwwblogs.washingtonpostdiscovermagazine.com/blogsgnxp/worldviews2010/wp11/2013/05/23/amost-surprisingatheists-mapare-of-where-the-worldsnot-white/ Most atheistsare not white & other non-live/ A surprising map of where the world’s atheists livefairy tales], ''Washington Post'' By Max Fisher and Caitlin Dewey May 23, 2013Discover magazine</ref>See: [[Asian atheism]] and [[Global atheism]]

*[https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/02/china-communist-party-atheism-zhejiang-ban-religious-members-christianity_n_6599722.html China's Communist Party Bans Believers, Doubles Down On Atheism]</ref> See: [[Atheism and communism]]

The [[Gulag]] is the extensive network of prison camps used in the atheistic [[Soviet Union]] to imprison [[Joseph Stalin]]'s political enemies. Although the prison camps housed a wide variety of criminals, it also had a large amount number of political prisoners, who were often abused by the common criminal inmates as punishments for often imagined violations of labor camp rules as were they elsewhere abused by common criminal convicts often used as orderlies in Soviet psychiatric prisons.

Just ask history’s most influential thinkers: [[God]] and human rights really do go together.<ref>Philpott, Daniel [, Professor of Political Science and Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame] , (May 28, 2014). [https://www.openglobalrights.org/no-human-rights-without-god/ "No human rights without God"] Open Global Rights </ref>}}

The website Premier Christianity features a 2018 article by Andy Bannister which states:{{Cquote|''It is 70 years since the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights ]] was adopted by the United Nations. Following his ''Big Conversation '' debate with ''[atheist] '' [[Peter Singer]], Andy Bannister says the document still poses a significant problem for atheists''...

These are trickier questions to answer than you might imagine, and the options are limited. Perhaps one might suggest that human rights just are; they just exist. This was the route taken by the secular human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell whom I once debated on Premier Christian Radio’s Unbelievable? show. Tatchell is We’re passionate about human rights, but when I pressed him on why we have award [[Nobel Prize]]s for them, he basically said they exist because they existbut a fairly basic question is often overlooked. This These rights, this dignity that human beings are claimed to have—where is hugely problematicit located? What is its basis, not just because it’s a circular argumentits foundation? In short, but because however noble the racist can use the same rationale – they can claim to be superior to other races and when we ask whyUDHR may sound, reply: “I am because I am.”...is it true?

But what if ethicsThese are trickier questions to answer than you might imagine, human rights and human dignity aren’t made up? One of the brilliant insights options are limited. Perhaps one might suggest that the world leaders, philosophers and theologians who crafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights had human rights just ''are''; they just exist. This was the assumption that route taken by the secular human rights and dignity aren’t invented but discoveredcampaigner Peter Tatchell whom I once debated on Premier Christian Radio’s ''Unbelievable?'' show. During our conversationTatchell is passionate about human rights, Singer actually admitted thisbut when I pressed him on why we have them, remarking that he increasingly thinks that moral values and duties basically said they exist independently of usbecause they exist. This is hugely problematic, in not just because it’s a “similar way circular argument, but because the racist can use the same rationale—they can claim to mathematical truths existing”be superior to other races and[,] when we ask why, reply: 'I am because I am.'...

'''Invented or discovered?''' But what if ethics, human rights and human dignity aren’t made up? One of the brilliant insights that the world leaders, philosophers and theologians who crafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights had was the assumption that human rights and dignity aren’t ''invented'' but ''discovered''. During our conversation, Singer actually admitted this, remarking that he increasingly thinks that moral values and duties exist independently of us, in a 'similar way to mathematical truths existing'. That’s a massive step for an atheist like Singer to take, for it means that as well as physical things (atoms, particles, tables, chairs, chocolate éclairs etc[.]) you also have invisible, non-physical entities floating around, principles such as “love 'love your neighbour”neighbour'. For somebody like Singer, who believes human beings are the unpurposed product of time plus chance plus natural selection, this looks remarkably peculiar... '''Where are we going'''

But by stark, beautiful contrast, if the Christian story is true, then we were made with a purpose. We were made ''for '' something. Indeed, made ''for '' someone. We were made to discover God’s love, to love God in return, and to love our neighbour. If Christianity is true, love is the supreme ethic – that’s ethic—that’s what it ''means '' to be human [,] and it gives a value, a purpose, a direction to human life – and life—and a basis not just for human rights but also for our duties to one another.

For example, Smith quotes [[Columbia University|Columbia]] professor Phillip Kitcher’s claim that atheism compels us to become “responsive to the desires of the entire human population” and to work toward the “provision of equal opportunities for worthwhile lives for all” (14). With equivalent daring, New Atheist author Sam Harris asserts that being good without God entails promoting “happiness for the greatest number of people” and “maximiz[ing] personal and collective well-being for all humanity” (15).