Atheism and world peace

The map above shows Global Peace Index Scores for the year 2014. Countries appearing with a shade of blue/green are ranked as more peaceful, countries appearing more red/orange are ranked as less peaceful. Yellow is a country that is midway between.

The Global Peace Index (GPI) is an index which attempts to measure the relative position of nations' and regions' peacefulness. Deficiencies of the GPI Index map as well as some explanations/analysis of the GPI Index map, which is featured on the right, are provided in the remainder of this article.

As far as the map to the right, it shows the Global Peace Index Scores for the year 2014. Countries appearing with a shade of blue/green are ranked as more peaceful, countries appearing more red/orange are ranked as less peaceful. Yellow is a country that is midway between.

As far as the blue/green portions of the map that are irreligious/religious, cultural legacies have a significant influence on societal violence and a very large percentage of the countries have Protestant cultural legacies/Christian cultural legacies or have been strongly influenced by countries with strong Protestant legacies (see: Irreligious countries with Protestant cultural legacies and Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Christianity statistics).

Furthermore, in terms of the large blue areas of the map. not only due the countries have a cultural legacy of Protestantism, Australia is a land surrounded by oceans which give it natural protection and much of Canada is surrounded by ocean and the United States/Canada have no desire to engage in hostilities. Furthermore, given Canada's proximity to the United States (which is a superpower), it has an ally in the United States which gives it further protection. Post-WWII Japan was greatly influence by Protestant culture (see: Protestant influence on Japan).

As far as the 28 countries in NATO, as of 2016, only 5 of the countries are meeting NATO's official obligations of spending 2% of their GDP on defense - U.S., Greece, Poland, Estonia and the U.K. So while certain NATO countries may be deemed more peaceful by the Global Peace Index due to their lower defense budgets (the Global Peace Index uses military expenditure as a percentage of GDP and a countries degree of militarization), they are not living up to their commitments and instead sponging off the NATO members who are meeting their obligations. According to CNN, "NATO admits it has an "over-reliance" on the U.S. for the provision of essential capabilities, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, air-to-air refueling, ballistic missile defense and airborne electronic warfare." So various countries in secular Europe are largely sponging off the United States to protect them from Russia which recently had about a 70 year cultural legacy of militant atheism. According to Bloomberg News, if Denmark were to meet its NATO financial obligations, which Donald Trump is insisting that NATO members do, that would break their welfare state.

A further analysis of secular European culture is provided below and WWI and WWII is discussed below along with the European Union. In addition, further analysis of the United States, Russia/Soviet Union is given below along with material dealing with China.

Effects of cultural legacies on violence

The website Cultural Front notes:

“

In chapter 6 of Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell highlights cultural legacies. He opens with disturbing descriptions of how longstanding cultural patterns and beliefs influenced violent conflicts among generations of families in Kentucky during the 19th century. The compelling research findings concerning long-term and deeply held values led Gladwell to the conclusion that cultural legacies are powerful forces. They have deep roots and long lives. They persist, generation after generation, virtually intact, even as the economic and social demographic conditions that spawned them have vanished, and they play such a role in directing attitudes and behavior that we cannot make sense of our world without them. He goes on to note the possibilities of “taking cultural legacies seriously” in order to learn “why people succeed and how to make people better.”

”

Atheism, culture and violence

• Atheism and violence
• Atheist atrocities
• Irreligion and domestic violence
• Atheism and rape
• Militant atheism
• Atheism and sadism
• Atheism and culture
• Atheism statistics

Protestant missionaries and economic and societal development

The atheist and Harvard University historian Niall Ferguson declared: "Through a mixture of hard work and thrift the Protestant societies of the North and West Atlantic achieved the most rapid economic growth in history."

See also: Atheism and economic prosperity

The article The Surprising Discovery About Those Colonialist, Proselytizing Missionaries published in Christianity Today notes:

“

In his fifth year of graduate school, Woodberry created a statistical model that could test the connection between missionary work and the health of nations. He and a few research assistants spent two years coding data and refining their methods. They hoped to compute the lasting effect of missionaries, on average, worldwide... One morning, in a windowless, dusty computer lab lit by fluorescent bulbs, Woodberry ran the first big test. After he finished prepping the statistical program on his computer, he clicked "Enter" and then leaned forward to read the results. "I was shocked," says Woodberry. "It was like an atomic bomb. The impact of missions on global democracy was huge. I kept adding variables to the model—factors that people had been studying and writing about for the past 40 years—and they all got wiped out. It was amazing. I knew, then, I was on to something really important." Woodberry already had historical proof that missionaries had educated women and the poor, promoted widespread printing, led nationalist movements that empowered ordinary citizens, and fueled other key elements of democracy. Now the statistics were backing it up: Missionaries weren't just part of the picture. They were central to it... Areas where Protestant missionaries had a significant presence in the past are on average more economically developed today, with comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, higher educational attainment (especially for women), and more robust membership in nongovernmental associations. In short: Want a blossoming democracy today? The solution is simple—if you have a time machine: Send a 19th-century missionary."

”

Protestant work ethic

See also: Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

The atheist and Harvard University historian Niall Ferguson declared: "Through a mixture of hard work and thrift the Protestant societies of the North and West Atlantic achieved the most rapid economic growth in history." For more information, please see: Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Christianity statistics relating to Christian cultures

See: Christianity statistics relating to Christian cultures

Russia and its red/violent index on the Global Peace Index

See also: Atheism and mass murder

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

Post fall of the Soviet Union, an atheist state empire which lasted 70 years, Protestantism has only recently gained significant growth, but it is still very much in the minority (see: Collapse of atheism in the former Soviet Union).

According to the University of Cambridge, historically, the "most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the Marxist-Leninists to power." See: Atheism and communism

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn offered the following explanation of mass murder under Russian communism:

“

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.'

”

Estonia consistently has one of the highest murder rates in Northern Europe

According to some fairly recently polling, Estonia is a European country with the lowest percentage of believers in God (lower than all the other countries in Europe) according to the 2005 Eurobarometer poll and 2008 Gallup poll. Estonia’s murder rate is consistently one of the very highest in Northern Europe year after year.

Estonia has never had a large Protestant population in terms of a proportion of its population.

For additional information, please see:

• Irreligious prison population

• Religion and crime reduction

The historical record and statistics about atheist leaders and mass murder

Atheism is an integral part of communist ideology (seee: Atheism and communism).

Theodore Beale

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. 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.

The ex-atheist Theodore Beale notes concerning atheism and mass murder:

“

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 Stalin and Mao … The total body count for the ninety years between 1917 and 2007 is approximately 148 million dead at the bloody hands of fifty-two atheists, three times more than all the human beings killed by war, civil war, and individual crime in the entire twentieth century combined. 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 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. Is a 58 percent chance that an atheist leader will murder a noticeable percentage of the population over which he rules sufficient evidence that atheism does, in fact, provide a systematic influence to do bad things? If that is not deemed to be conclusive, how about the fact that the average atheist crime against humanity is 18.3 million percent worse than the very worst depredation committed by Christians, even though atheists have had less than one-twentieth the number of opportunities with which to commit them. If one considers the statistically significant size of the historical atheist set and contrasts it with the fact that not one in a thousand religious leaders have committed similarly large-scale atrocities, it is impossible to conclude otherwise, even if we do not yet understand exactly why this should be the case. Once might be an accident, even twice could be coincidence, but fifty-two incidents in ninety years reeks of causation!

”

World War I, World War II and Darwinism

Historically, the most prominent and vocal defenders of the theory of evolution which employs methodological naturalism have been atheists or agnostics.

The founder of Darwinism, Charles Darwin, was an agnostic/weak atheist (see: Religious views of Charles Darwin).

Charles Darwin's ideas on the white race exterminating other races which he claimed were inferior

Charles Darwin

See also: Evolutionary racism and Social Darwinism

Charles Darwin wrote in his work The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex:

“

At some future period not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes...will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest Allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as the baboon, instead of as now between the Negro or Australian and the gorilla.

”

WWI and Darwinism

See also: World War I and Darwinism

Historian Jacques Barzun observed how Darwinism caused the horrendous brutality of the wars leading up to World War I: "Since in every European country between 1870 and 1914 there was a war party demanding armaments, an individualist party demanding ruthless competition, an imperialist party demanding a free hand over backward peoples, a socialist party demanding the conquest of power and a racialist party demanding internal purges against aliens — all of them, when appeals to greed and glory failed, invoked Spencer and Darwin, which was to say science incarnate."

According to Annika Mombauer, senior lecturer in history at the Open University in London and the author of numerous books and articles on World War I:

“

Many of the decision makers and, in fact, many ordinary Europeans did feel that war would eventually come. You have to think of another "-ism" -- social Darwinism, this belief that nations and peoples are subject to the same biological laws as animals and that they are going to either rise to the top or they are going to be eliminated in a vying for power."

”

For more information please see: Darwinism and World War One and Darwinism and the Nazi race Holocaust and Social effects of evolutionary ideology

WWII, Nazism and Darwinism

Charles Darwin, Nazi ideology development and eugenics

In a Creation Ministries International article entitled Darwin and eugenics: Darwin was indeed a ‘Social Darwinist’ Bill Muehlenberg writes:

“

‘Darwin’s work is filled with references to the work of those involved in creating a radical new “scientific” justification for labeling races, classes, and individuals as “inferior”. … Darwin writes in The Descent of Man that “a most important obstacle in civilized countries to an increase in the number of men of a superior class” is the tendency of society’s “very poor and reckless”, who are “often degraded by vice”, to increase faster than “the provident and generally virtuous members”.’

”

In addition, Dennis Sewell declared cornering the Darwin family:

“

[In the] years leading up to the First World War, the eugenics movement looked like a Darwin family business. … Darwin’s son Leonard replaced his cousin Galton as chairman of the national Eugenics Society in 1911. In the same year an offshoot of the society was formed in Cambridge. Among its leading members were three more of Charles Darwin’s sons, Horace, Francis and George.”

”

Evolution and Nazism: Some key historical figures

See also: World War I and Darwinism

Adolf Hitler

The March 9, 1907 edition of the NY Times refers to Ernst Haeckel as the "celebrated Darwinian and founder of the Association for the Propagation of Ethical Atheism."

The staunch evolutionist and agnostic Stephen Gould admitted:

“

Haeckel was the chief apostle of evolution in Germany.... His evolutionary racism; his call to the German people for racial purity and unflinching devotion to a "just" state; his belief that harsh, inexorable laws of evolution ruled human civilization and nature alike, conferring upon favored races the right to dominate others; the irrational mysticism that had always stood in strange communion with his brave words about objective science - all contributed to the rise of Nazism. - Stephen J. Gould, "Ontogeny and Phylogeny," Belknap Press: Cambridge MA, 1977, pp.77-78).

”

Adolf Hitler wrote the following evolutionary racist material in his work Mein Kampf:

“

If nature does not wish that weaker individuals should mate with the stronger, she wishes even less that a superior race should intermingle with an inferior one; because in such cases all her efforts, throughout hundreds of thousands of years, to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being, may thus be rendered futile.

”

Hitler also wrote in Mein Kampf:

“

The stronger must dominate and not blend with the weaker, thus sacrificing his own greatness. Only the born weakling can view this as cruel, but he, after all, is only a weak and limited man; for if this law did not prevail, any conceivable higher development (Hoherentwicklung) of organic living beings would be unthinkable.

”

Dr. Robert E.D. Clark also wrote:

“

“Adolf Hitler’s mind was captivated by evolutionary teaching — probably since the time he was a boy. Evolutionary ideas — quite undisguised — lie at the basis of all that is worst in Mein Kampf — and in his public speeches.”

”

Josef Mengele

Dr. Josef Mengele's evolutionary thinking was in accordance with social Darwinist theories that Adolph Hitler and a number of German academics found appealing. Dr. Joseph Mengele studied under the leading proponents the "unworthy life" branch of evolutionary thought. Dr. Mengele was one of the most notorious individuals associated with Nazi death camps and the Holocaust. Mengele obtained a infamous reputation due to his experiments on twins while at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

B. Wilder-Smith wrote the following regarding Nazism and the theory of evolution:

“

One of the central planks in Nazi theory and doctrine was …evolutionary theory [and] … that all biology had evolved … upward, and that … less evolved types … should be actively eradicated [and] … that natural selection could and should be actively aided, and therefore [the Nazis] instituted political measures to eradicate … Jews, and … blacks, whom they considered as “underdeveloped”.’

”

Pulitzer Prize winning author Marilynne Robinson wrote the following regarding Hitler's racism in the November 2006 issue of Harper’s Magazine:

“

While it is true that persecution of the Jews has a very long history in Europe, it is also true that science in the twentieth century revived and absolutized persecution by giving it a fresh rationale — Jewishness was not religious or cultural, but genetic. Therefore no appeal could be made against the brute fact of a Jewish grandparent... There is indeed historical precedent in the Spanish Inquisition for the notion of hereditary Judaism. But the fact that the worst religious thought of the sixteenth century can be likened to the worst scientific thought of the twentieth century hardly redounds to the credit of science."

”

As noted earlier, evolutionary ideas significantly influenced the thinking of the nineteenth and twentieth-century Communists. Karl Marx wrote in a letter the following, ""Darwin's book is very important and serves me as a basis in natural science for the class struggle in history." Darwin's ideas also influenced the thinking of Engels, Vladimir Lenin, and Joseph Stalin.

WWII, Benito Mussolini, atheism, Darwinism and violence

Italy was on the Axis powers in WWII and an ally of Nazi Germany.

Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) was the Fascist dictator of Italy. A life-long socialist intellectual and self-proclaimed "socialist heretic", he was nominated prime minister by Vittorio Emanuele III di Savoia, King of Italy, in the time of World War II. He was head of one of the strong forms of government seen in Europe in this time. He created the political structure Fasci Italiani di Combatimento, which is what later would be known as Fascism, a term which was later used to describe the merging of government and corporation. He was responsible for several war crimes in Ethiopia and Yugoslavia.

In his work entitled Mussolini Denis Mack Smith wrote:

“

From his father he [Mussolini] had learnt to be a thoroughgoing anti-clerical. He proclaimed himself to be an atheist and several times tried to shock an audience by calling on God to strike him dead. He forcibly denounced those socialists who thought religion a matter for individual conscience or had their children baptised. [In Mussolini's opinion] Science had proved that God did not exist and the Jesus of history was an ignorant Jew whose family thought him mad, and who was a pigmy compared to the Buddha. Religion, he said, was a disease of the psyche, an epidemic to be cured by psychiatrists, and Christianity in particular was vitiated by preaching the senseless virtues of resignation and cowardice, whereas the new socialist morality should celebrate violence and rebellion."

”

Dr. David N. Menton wrote about the effect Darwinism had upon Mussolini:

“

Benito Mussolini, who brought fascism to Italy, was also greatly influenced by Darwinism, which he thought supported his belief that violence is essential for beneficial social transformation. Mussolini repeatedly used Darwinian catchwords in his speeches and ridiculed efforts at peace because they interfered with natural evolutionary process.

”

European Union

Many political scientists and others credit the European Union (EU) with largely preventing war in Europe for about the last 70 years (Much of WWI and WWII were fought on European soil). In recent years, conflicts dealing with economics (see: Eurozone Crisis), national sovereignty and immigration has threatened to breakup the EU and recently contributed to Britain leaving the (see: Brexit).

Economic conditions and Muslim immigration has also caused both violent and peaceful demonstrations in Europe.

Irreligion and domestic violence

See also: Irreligion and domestic violence and Atheism and women and Atheism and alcoholism

Research suggests that irreligiousity is a causal factor for domestic violence. See: Irreligion and domestic violence

The irreligious have a higher rate of domestic violence (See: Irreligion and domestic violence). In addition, some of Europe's most secular countries have significant problems with domestic violence (see: Secular Europe and domestic violence).

For example, Sweden is one of the most atheistic countries in the world. In Sweden, 81 percent of women said they had been harassed at some point after the age of 15 - compared to the EU average of 55 percent.

Research indicates that atheists are more likely to see illegal drug use and couple cohabitation before marriage as being morally acceptable. A higher rate of domestic violence exists among cohabiting couples as compared with married couples Atheists have lower marriage rates than theists (see: Atheism and marriage and Atheist marriages). According to the World Health Organization, "Interpersonal violence and illicit drug use are major public health challenges that are strongly linked."

Atheism and mass rape

See also: Atheism and rape

Mass rape during the occupation of Germany by the Soviet army

See also: Mass rape of German women by the Soviet army and Atheism and communism and Soviet atheism

When told that Red Army soldiers sexually assaulted German refugees, Joseph Stalin reportedly declared: "We lecture our soldiers too much; let them have their initiative."

The Soviet Union practiced state atheism and militant atheism. According to the University of Cambridge, historically, the "most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the Marxist-Leninists to power."

The journalist Peter Hitchens is the ex-atheist brother of atheist Christopher Hitchens and he covered the Soviet Union during its latter years before it collapsed. According to Peter Hitchens, an atheistic society degraded the morals of the Russian people during the Soviet period (see: Soviet Union and morality).

Mass rape and the Soviet Union's army in Germany

As Allied troops entered and occupied Germany during the latter part of World War II, mass rapes occurred in connection with combat operations and during the occupation which followed. Historians in the Western World generally conclude that the majority of the rapes were committed by Soviet servicemen.

The majority of the rapes happened in the Soviet occupation zone. Estimates of the number of German women sexually assaulted by Soviet soldiers have ranged up to 2 million. The historian William Hitchcock declared that in many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some women experienced as many as 60 to 70 rapes.

After the atheist leader of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin received a complaint from Yugoslav politician Milovan Djilas about rapes in Yugoslavia, Stalin reportedly said that he should "understand it if a soldier who has crossed thousands of kilometres through blood and fire and death has fun with a woman or takes some trifle." Also, when told that Red Army soldiers sexually assaulted German refugees, Stalin reportedly declared: "We lecture our soldiers too much; let them have their initiative."

Only a handful of Soviet soldiers were ever court martialed for raping German women during the war.

China, state atheism and persecution

See also: Atheism and communism and Communism and religious persecution

China has the world's largest atheist population. And most atheists live in East Asia (see: Asian atheism and Atheist population). Currently, East Asia is seeing large numbers of people leaving atheism (see: East Asia and global desecularization and Growth of Christianity in China).

Communist countries practice state atheism (See: Atheism and communism).

In 1955, Chinese communist leader Zhou Enlai declared, "We Communists are atheists". In 2015, the Communist Party of China reaffirmed that members of their party must be atheists.

In 1955, Chinese communist leader Zhou Enlai declared, "We Communists are atheists". In 2014, the Communist Party of China reaffirmed that members of their party must be atheists.

In 2016, the International Business Times reported:

“

A senior Chinese advisor on religious affairs has said the country should promote atheism throughout society, in remarks that appear to reflect a deepening campaign to reinforce traditional Marxist values in China — and could add to concern about official attitudes among believers in the country’s five officially recognized religions.

”

There is growing persecution of Christians by the Chinese government. Historically persecution has often been an ineffective means to stop the growth of Christianity in a region. Persecution and exponential Christian growth have frequently coincided. On the other hand, persecution often coincides with diminishing Christianity.

The historian Martin Van Crevel points out that sovereign states are losing power/influence due to technology democratizing access to information, welfare states increasingly failing, fourth-generation warfare being waged against countries and sovereign states increasingly losing their ability to maintain internal order.

Chinese atheistic communists vs. conservative Islam

See also: Atheism vs. Islam and Militant atheism and Islamic terrorism

China has the largest atheist population in the world.

China has the largest atheist population in the world. In 2014, the Communist Party of China reaffirmed that members of their party must be atheists.

In communist China, there is a degree of religious persecution that occurs and it varies depending on the particular time period, local leaders and the growth of the particular religion (see: Atheistic communism and repression and Atheistic, Chinese communism and torture).

In 2014, the Washington Post reported:

“

The month of Ramadan should have been a time of fasting, charity and prayer in China’s Muslim west. But here, in many of the towns and villages of southern Xinjiang, it was a time of fear, repression, and violence. China’s campaign against separatism and terrorism in its mainly Muslim west has now become an all-out war on conservative Islam, residents here say. Throughout Ramadan,police intensified a campaign of house-to-house searches, looking for books or clothing that betray “conservative” religious belief among the region’s ethnic Uighurs: women wearing veils were widely detained, and many young men arrested on the slightest pretext, residents say. Students and civil servants were forced to eat instead of fasting, and work or attend classes instead of attending Friday prayers. The religious repression has bred resentment, and, at times, deadly protests.

”

In recent years, Christianity has seen rapid growth in China (see: Growth of Christianity in China)l.

China, United States and Russia

China, the United States and Russia are all leading leading powers with sufficient scientific/technical development to be nuclear powers. Given the nature of man's fallen nature and the history of leading world powers, it is not surprising that these nations are not blue/green on the Global Peace Index (China and the United States are yellow on the GPI Index map and Russia is red).

Chinese/American culture and social cooperation: Rice vs. wheat theory of culture

China is more rice oriented in its practices and the United States is more wheat based.

Shanghai Daily declares:

“

RICE or wheat? The choice may be more than a matter of taste: It could even determine personality. That’s according to Thomas Talhelm, an American psychology PhD candidate at the University of Virginia, who recently received wide media notice for sharing his “Rice Theory of Culture.” According to his research, people from rice-farming areas are more interdependent, can be shy around strangers and are focused on avoiding conflict; people from wheat-producing areas are less concerned about preserving social harmony, are more independent and more outgoing and straightforward. The theory fits not only in China, but also in other rice-cultivating countries, such as Japan and South Korea. Singapore is another “rice personality country” because a big part of the population there are descendants of Chinese immigrants from the rice-farming areas, Talhelm says. For the past few years, the 28-year-old American has traveled around China to work on his rice theory, and now he is expected to expand it to India and other Asian countries. “Rice is very special farming,” says Talhelm who recently came to Shanghai for a psychology workshop, “because before modern technology was developed, farming rice needed more cooperation than farming wheat.” “Rice needs much more labor, and people need to cooperate,” he says. “Flooding, draining, harvesting, fertilizing and others all need cooperation, and if you mess things up, your neighbors may be pissed.”

”

Global atheism, sub-replacement fertility rates, aging populations and violence

As people age, they are less likely to commit violence. Currently, many countries with significant atheist populations are facing aging populations due to sub-replacement levels of fertility (see: Global atheism and aging populations and Atheism and fertility rates).

On the other hand, while China's past one child policy did reduced its fertility rate, it also caused sex selection abortions and now there is a deficit of marriageable women in China. There are concerns that unmarried and angry/frustrated Chinese men will be more aggressive/warlike. In recent years, China has been accused of imperialism in the South China sea with its growing naval force.

According to 2012 figures from the National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China, China’s sex ratio at birth (the number of boys born for every 100 girls) was as high as 118, while the sex ratio amongst the total population was about 105. The statistical data from China indicates that the gap between male and female at birth is far larger than the biologically benchmark ratio (a sex ratio at birth of around 105 males per 100 females).

Irreligion/religion and war

See also: Irreligion/religion and war

Countries with high levels of atheism, such as North Korea, have not necessarily been the most peaceful countries.

Louise Ridley, assistant news editor at the Huffington Post UK, wrote in her article entitled Does Religion Really Cause War - And Do Atheists Have Something To Answer For?:

“

But academic studies consistently challenge the link between religion and war. Research published in October from the New York and Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace looked at all of the wars that took place in 2013. It found no 'general causal relationship' between religion and conflict. In fact, religious elements played no role at all in 14 (40%) of the 35 armed conflicts in the research, and only five (14%) had religious elements as their main cause, the report showed. All of the wars had multiple causes, and the much more common motivation was opposition to a government, or to the economic, ideological, political or social systems of a state, which was named as a main factor in nearly two thirds of the cases studied. The Encyclopedia of Wars, an extensive study published in 2008, chronicles 1,763 wars throughout human history. It names just 123 as 'religious in nature' – a little under 7%. The Institute for Economics and Peace report also found that having less religion in a country doesn’t make it more peaceful. The proportion of atheists in a country had no bearing on levels of peace. Countries with the highest levels of atheism – mainly communist or former communist states like Russia and the Czech Republic – were not necessarily the most peaceful. North Korea, which has one of the lowest rates of people practising religion, was one of ten 'least peaceful' countries in world last year, according to the report.

”

In his book The Irrational Atheist, Vox Day wrote:

“

It’s also interesting to note that more than half of these religious wars, sixty-six in all, were waged by Islamic nations, which is rather more than might be statistically expected considering that the first war in which Islam was involved took place almost three millennia after the first war chronicled in the Encyclopedia, Akkad’s conquest of Sumer in 2325 B . C . In light of this evidence, the fact that a specific religion is currently sparking a great deal of conflict around the globe cannot reasonably be used to indict all religious faith, especially when one considers that removing that single religion from the equation means that all of the other religious faiths combined only account for 3.35 percent of humanity’s wars.

”

In Foreign Policy atheist Scott Atran indicates religion is not a major causal factor for wars

Theodore Beale wrote in his article entitled Atheists abandon "religion causes war" argument:

"Scott Atran is the first atheist to publicly come out and admit the historical nonexistence of the oft-claimed connection between religion and war in Foreign Policy:

Moreover, the chief complaint against religion -- that it is history's prime instigator of intergroup conflict -- does not withstand scrutiny. Religious issues motivate only a small minority of recorded wars. The Encyclopedia of Wars surveyed 1,763 violent conflicts across history; only 123 (7 percent) were religious. A BBC-sponsored "God and War" audit, which evaluated major conflicts over 3,500 years and rated them on a 0-to-5 scale for religious motivation (Punic Wars = 0, Crusades = 5), found that more than 60 percent had no religious motivation. Less than 7 percent earned a rating greater than 3. There was little religious motivation for the internecine Russian and Chinese conflicts or the world wars responsible for history's most lethal century of international bloodshed.

Not only does Atran accept the argument I originally presented in a WND article before refining it in The Irrational Atheist, but his article is actually much less of a Fighting Withdrawal than the misleading subtitle - What we don't understand about religion just might kill us - would lead the casual reader to believe."

Intolerance of militant atheism and militant Islam

See also: Atheism and intolerance and Atheism vs. Islam and Islamic terrorism

David Silverman

The Christian Apologetic and Research Ministry wrote about the intolerance of militant atheism and militant Islam:

“

...there is one thing that both the faith of atheism (yes, atheism is indeed a faith-based system) and Islam have in common: they aggressively do everything in their power to silence any voice that dares to challenge their ideology... Sporting such a spirit, it is not surprising that hatetheists have no desire for any dialogue with others who do not share their opinions. A case in point is the first “Reason Rally,” which was held in Washington D.C. on March 24, 2012, with headliners like Richard Dawkins and other similar famous atheists being present. When Tom Gilson, editor of the book True Reason, contacted David Silverman of American Atheists to inform them that Christians would be present at the Reason Rally and were interested in having a respectful dialogue with the atheist group with a formal debate between Dawkins and Christian apologist William Lane Craig also being proposed, he was told the following: "Make no mistake – you are not welcomed guests at the rally. We are not going to DC for ‘dialogue’ with people who believe ridiculous things--we are going to have fun with other like-minded people. Those who proselytize or interfere with our legal and well-deserved enjoyment will be escorted to the 1st Amendment pen by security, which will be plentiful, where you can stand with the Westborough [sic] Baptists and shout yourselves hoarse. Spreading out among the crowd is not a substitute for a permit. Indeed, I will be meeting with the Parks Commission on Thursday to discuss how to handle your infiltrative permitless counter-protest." While Silverman and his group have no problem erecting billboards during times such as Christmas and Easter that mock Christianity and thus insert themselves into Christians’ holidays, it appears they have no desire to have Christians ‘intrude’ into their events. So much for being ‘free thinkers.’

”

Irreligion/religion and love/peace

See also: Atheism and love

From a metaphysical, moral and spiritual perspective, atheists have an inability to satisfactorily explain the existence of love. See also: Atheism and morality See also: Atheism and love

Jesus Christ and his apostles taught a gospel of love.

Jesus Christ and his apostles taught a gospel of love. For example, the New Testament teaches that a husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church (Ephesians 5:25). See also: Agape

In his article The Triumph of the Gospel of Love, Monk Themistocles (Adamopoulo) wrote:

“

It is generally agreed by scholars and saints that the teaching of "love" and charity represent one of the essential dimensions of the Gospel of Jesus and the Gospel of Paul. Accordingly, from the extant words and parables of Jesus many concern themselves with the message of love. For example on the Sunday of Meat Fare, from the Gospel of Matthew, we hear Jesus identifying Himself and in solidarity with the destitute, the suffering, the rejected and the oppressed, calling for and rewarding altruistic philanthropy: "... I was hungry and you fed me, when I was thirsty you gave me drink, when I was a stranger you took me in, when naked you clothed me, when I was ill you came to my help, when in prison you visited me ... I tell you this anything you did for one of my brothers here, however humble, you did it for me." (Matt 25:35-36, 40)... Christians undertook a great deal of almsgiving to the poor not only to fellow believers but to pagans as well. So amazed was the anti-Christian pagan emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363 AD), with the sheer benevolence and excellence of Christian philanthropy that he was forced to admit in wonder their superiority over paganism in matters of charity: "These godless Galileans (ie. Christians) feed not only their own poor but ours: our poor lack our care" (Ep. Sozom. 5:16).

”

Economic instability, war, economic development, charity and religion/irreligion

Beggar in Calcutta, India.

Per capita atheists and agnostics in America give significantly less to charity than theists even when church giving is not counted for theists. See: Atheism and uncharitableness

Economic instability is a causal factor for war.

The Christian relief organization World Vision Australia notes that out of the 150 or more major conflicts since World War II, 130 of these were in poor countries. And economic instability was one of the causal factors of WWII.

In terms of economic development, biblical Christianity has historically had a positive affect on countries.

See also:

• Atheism and communism

• Soviet atheism

• Secular left

• Atheism and politics

Charity: Religiousness vs. irreligiousness

See also: Atheism and uncharitableness

Per capita atheists and agnostics in America give significantly less to charity than theists even when church giving is not counted for theists (See: Atheism and uncharitableness).

Dr. William Lane Craig points out that the social science research indicates that atheists who have family/social contacts with religious people give more to charity than atheists who do not have such an influence.

Atheist arrogance/anger/quarrelsomeness

See also: Atheist bullying and Atheist movement and Atheism and the internet

The Apostle Paul taught that arrogance and easily provoked anger are antithetical to love (1 Corinthians 13: 4-5). The atheist population has a significant problem with pride, anger and quarrelsomeness (see: Atheism and arrogance and Atheism and anger and Atheism and social intelligence and Atheist factions).

The atheist and lesbian Greta Christina told the journalist Chris Mooney on the Point of Inquiry podcast, "there isn't one emotion" that affects atheists "but anger is one of the emotions that many of us have ...[it] drives others to participate in the movement."

Blair Scott served on the American Atheists board of directors. Mr. Scott formerly served as a State Director for the American Atheists organization in the state of Alabama. On December 1, 2012 he quit his post as a director of outreach for the American Atheist due to infighting within the American atheist movement.

Mr. Blair wrote:

“

I have spent the last week mulling over what I want to do at this point in the movement. I’m tired of the in-fighting: at every level. I am especially tired of allowing myself to get sucked into it and engaging in the very behavior that is irritating..me.

”

The atheist Brendan O'Neill wrote in The Telegraph in an article entitled How atheists became the most colossally smug and annoying people on the planet: "These days, barely a week passes without the emergence of yet more evidence that atheists are the most irritating people on Earth."

For more information please see:

• Atheism and emotional intelligence

• Atheism and immaturity

Christianity and world peace

The Christian theology of premillennialism, which was the dominant form of eschatology in the early church, and it still very popular today, indicates that there will be a 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ on the earth and during this time there will be world peace.

Furthermore, Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." (Matthew 5:9).

See also

• Atheism and human rights violations
• List of atheist shooters and serial killers
• Atheistic communism and torture
• Atheism and forced labor
• Atheism and slavery
• Atheism and cannibalism
• Atheism and the problem of evil
• Atheism and historical revisionism
• Atheists and historical illiteracy
• Rebuttals to atheist arguments
• Christianity and social stability

External links

• "Religion causes wars" by Tom Price
• The Myth that Religion is the #1 Cause of War by Robin Schumacher at CARM