In a recent appointment with my psych, I was told that every behavior exhibited by mankind has been rationalized in some way; it reminded me of the atrocities people have committed in the name of religion.

The vatican was complicit with the Nazis. The bible encourages slavery, murder and rape. Islam is still fresh in everyone's memory.

Firstly ! Hitler was a catholic , maybe not a practising one , but he did write in Mein Kampf that exterminating the Jews was ' the work the of the Lord ' . Stalin , Mao etc just happened to be atheists ....,their crimes were not committed in the name of atheism . In fact they were almost self appointed religious leaders .

Hitler's atrocities were distinctly religiously motivated. FFS, he was killing the JEWS.

Mao was a cult a personality. Does that count as secular?

Stalin is a more complex case. Marxism was the motivation, but at least it was true they were conventionally atheist. Ignoring the deaths fighting WWII, Stalin killed something like 3 million people. That is WAY less than can be laid religion's feet.

But none of that really matters. The whole question needs to be rephrased....

Let's compare the numbers of deaths where religion was the motivating factor in the killing or fighting vs the same number where atheism was the motivating factor. Who is killing in the name of atheism? What are the numbers of deaths? People kill "In the name of" religion every day. Where's the parallel.

Count the deaths that the US made by their governmental actions against other armies and civilians. Fighting for interests, not for safety or being attacked. Don't the soldiers pray before attacking? I saw pilots do it.

It's a red herring when someone says that atheism or agnosticism is somehow tainted because some of their adherents were terrible people. It's the validity of the argument itself that matters, not who supports it. Like a friend of mine once, said, "If an Oxford don says the earth is flat, that doesn't mean it's time to start looking for the edge."

Spanish inquisition. The crusades. And there is an argument to be said that Hitler was religious. He was like all Christians in that he only believed the parts that he already agreed with and fit his objective. [en.m.wikipedia.org]