Murder is murder regardless of who does it.

People kill for numerous reasons. Add nationalism in the modern age as the main killer. People kill and die for the sacred nation, a type of religion that apotheosizes the nation. People hide behind reasons to kill, whether religious, power (a key reason), resources, etc.

A tired old argument.....as is the one that we have no morals unless we have a religion.

Thanks. Interesting read.

IT is a typical straw man. This is resorted to when they do not have a good argument.

while religions may have not been the source of wars in some cases they were used to motivate people to go kill the other side. Now the Crusades were about religions if there were no religions there would have not been a crusades. Everyone thinks their god is the only real god but in reality all gods are fictional.

It’s a lot of words over nothing. Just about everybody knows that Hitler claimed to be a Christian. I think most people also know that Stalin did not do his murders in the name of atheism, or because of atheism. Pol Pot ditto.

The entire long barrage misses a crucial point. Some atheists are prone to stating that nearly every war and every atrocity has been caused by religion, and that if governments could be set up that were run by atheists, religions and wars could be eliminated.

The fact, totally ignored, is that over vast areas of the world such governments HAVE been set up, and the result in no case has been a utopia free of war. Look at “State Atheism” on Wikipedia and you’ll see what I mean. Some politician even tried to rid Mexico of religion—it was a bust.

War is part of the human condition and is probably necessary, however if you want to blame someone blame egotistical, power-hungry politicians. It makes not one bit of difference the political opinions of these politicians. Tyranny in the name of atheism or religion is basically the same ignorant, egotistical crap.