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[[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 based on competing hypotheses 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:

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

:"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''|first=William|last=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.

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>

The aforementioned actions during the French Revolution, especially the Reign of Terror in 1793, would also inspire Karl Marx in composing of the [[Communist Manifesto]], 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>

*Gonzales, Kevin (January 29, 2013 or bef.). [http://martyredintheussr.com/ "Martyred in the USSR Militant Atheism in the former Soviet Union, Russian Orthodox church, religious persecution, atheist"] Martyred in the USSR website. See [[Martyred in the USSR: Militant Atheism in the former Soviet Union]].

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 "Record of censorship/Only one year - 1976".] ''Index'' [Russian Language], republished at ''Index'' magazine website/Ginzburg.</ref><ref name="washingtonpost.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>

== Atheistic China, political prisoners Atheism and slavery/forced labor in prisons ==

'''See also: ''' [[Atheism and repressive prisonsslavery]] and [[Atheism and forced labor]] and [[Atheism and communism]]

[[File:Flag of the PRC.png|thumbnail|200px|left|According to China]], [[CNNNorth Korea]], hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of labor camps and forced labor prisons (called laogai) still exist in modern [[ChinaVietnam]].<ref>{{cite web|url=httpspractice [[state atheism]] (see://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>[[State atheism]]).

Most atheists are 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 [East Asia[Eritrea]]ns 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: [[Asian atheismAtheism and forced labor]]). For more information, please see: *[[Atheism and slavery]] *[[Atheism and forced labor]] === Atheistic China, political prisoners and forced labor in prisons === See also: [[Atheism and repressive prisons]] and [[Atheism and forced labor]] and [[Atheism and communism]] [[File:Flag of the PRC.png|thumbnail|200px|right|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>]]

*[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]] [[East Asia]] contains about 25 percent of the world’s population. China’s population represents 20 percent of the people on earth.<ref>[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 [[secular]] nations in the world are those of East Asia, in particular what are often termed “[[Confucianism|Confucian]] societies.” It is likely therefore that the majority of the world’s [[Atheism|atheists]] are actually East Asian."<ref>[http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/11/most-atheists-are-not-white/ Most atheists are not white & other non-fairy tales], Discover 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]]

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 existingbe 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 your 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).