That is a weird statement.

"A particularly dangerous phenomenon for faith has arisen in our times: indeed a form of atheism exists which we define, precisely, as “practical”, in which the truths of faith or religious rites are not denied but are merely deemed irrelevant to daily life, detached from life, pointless. So it is that people often believe in God in a superficial manner, and live “as though God did not exist” (etsi Deus non daretur). In the end, however, this way of life proves even more destructive because it leads to indifference to faith and to the question of God.

In fact human beings, separated from God, are reduced to a single dimension — the horizontal — and this reductionism itself is one of the fundamental causes of the various forms of totalitarianism that have had tragic consequences in the past century, as well as of the crisis of values that we see in the current situation. By obscuring the reference to God the ethical horizon has also been obscured, to leave room for relativism and for an ambiguous conception of freedom which, instead of being liberating, ends by binding human beings to idols."

Find the culprit pope. (Google it and you lose)

No, he's 100% right.

No war, no atrocity, has ever been fought in the name of atheism.

China's conflicts were over dynasties.

Communist atrocities were done in the name of communism, not in the name of atheism.


Atheism is simply the lack of belief in god. No more, no less. What you do with that lack of belief, is up to each individual. There is no point in pinning any atrocities on atheism, just as there is no point in pinning any atrocities on theism in general.

Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Vikings and Shintos are all theists. But we can't blame Vikings for the shit that Christians did, nor can we blame Christians for the shit Muslims did, etc. etc. etc.

We should judge every religion and every creed on its own flaws and merits.

Ahem, to quote. " I could argue that most of the worst conflicts in history were brought about by Christian values"

The 5 most deadly conflicts in recorded human history.

1. World War 2 : 58 Million

2. The Three Kingdoms Period : 37 Million

3. The Mongol Conquest : 35 Million

4. Qing Dynasty's War with the Ming Dynasty : 25 Million

5. The Taiping Rebellion : 40 Million

6. The Second Sinto-Japan War : 29 Million

7. World War 1 : 18 Million

That's 166 Million dead from the hands of people who most definitely were not Christian. Even without removing the amount of non-christians from WWI and WWII, and Including the Colonization of the Americas, a total 55 Million, That's still 131 Million to 166 Million.

Oh, and because I hear this argument of "theists commit all war crimes" and shit, let me be frank. Just like christians can't exclude radical fanatics from their history, Atheists can't exclude communist powers from their own. 78 million dead from China's great leap forward, 61 million dead from the Soviet Justice System. 139 Million dead from Atheists in power, you guys were as bad as the crusade, dark, middle, and imperialistic eras of christian europe.

Your bottom sentiment, I'd believe, if the top sentiment didn't attempt to do exactly what your bottom statement set out not to do. Cast blame on the theisms and try and exonerate one above the others of being judged for its creed and actions.

Hitler was into some weird occult craziness and IIRC once wrote something about Christianity representing one of the long term obstacles to his vision for the world. Calling him a Christian is quite a stretch.

You cannot claim there is no relationship between communism and atheism. To claim that religion is responsible for atrocities and then claim that atheism holds no responsibility for the acts of communists and other atheists is a weak argument. Stalin and others were certainly quick enough to murder religious leaders and other "threats" which did not conform to the views of the state.

The only gods worse than the PMMM gods are the atheist gods. Heretic.

You only say that because you haven't watched PMMM yet, future convert Recon.

Positive Christianity.

1. I wouldn't object at all, in fact, I included WWII against the Christians. Every Casualty, even those who weren't Christians such as those who died in Asia and the Middle East, just because I was too lazy to separate them. I posted WWII and WWI on the list to show the contrast between the bloodiest nation in the world, China, and the death toll for what are considered the first and second bloodiest wars in human history by people who assume China simply did nothing while the western war was developing and evolving for thousands of years.

You can claim Nazi's were Christians, I did, and I also claim that Communist Countries who did things like disbanding organized religions and dis-empowering religious factions were atheist. I'm not a christian, an atheist, or probably even an agnostic. I'm Apathetic to Faith in general, and I don't care what you are, as long as you don't try to push it on me as some wonder-drug for all your mental ailments or some perfect form of belief systems, which is what atheism has become thanks to the internet and human arrogance. 

2. "In The Name of Atheism", what kind of crock of shit semantics game are you trying to pull? I explained above, and if you did basic addition and subtraction you'd see, I didn't include WWI nor WWII in the list of atheist atrocities. My numbers came from the numbers of people killed by Russia's secret police who were as anti-religious/pro-atheist as anyone else, and Mao's Great Leap Forward which was done to shatter the Chinese Societal and Cultural structure and did many anti-religious and pro-atheist measures in order to level the playing field in a failed attempt to reshape China as an industrial super power.

3. I hold Atheism accountable for what people have done using it's banner to promote themselves and excuse their actions later. The many Government-Oriented-Belief-Systems which served to almost fill some sort of void for theist faith are direct spawns of Atheism. Just as Witch Trials and Religious Persecution were the spawn of Christianity and Jihads and Suicide Bombing were the Spawn of Islam. I judge the later two for those actions, and I judge the former for it's part in spawning the worst and most bloody faith on the back of destroying all previous faiths.