[Thor]

I wanted to finish my point on the Atheism leads to Communism, Hitler, Pol Pot, North Korea, etc.. Or the argument that those are Atheistic societies which are examples of why Atheism leads to evil.

This argument is much like what we hear constantly from creationists who even though we thoroughly refute them on this, they site the human eye as being a case for "look how perfect it is, its obvious its created, thus evolution is false."

Its refuted over and over again, yet its still the commonly used strategy by creationists.

Now as to Stalin/Lenin, Pol pot, Mao, and North Korea... I won't even add Hitler even though its commonly used because historians will point out his private correspondence shows and if not prove he's religious, at least prove he's not an atheist.

The argument from the religious apologist's is based on the belief that religion is the source of morality. That logic leads them to point out communism, which is the great evil to a Christian USA is an Atheist nation (its not, over 85% of Russians are Catholics and always have been). It was a neat combining of hatred for the US, hate of Atheists and hate of Communists.

The argument that Stalin committed crime because he was not fearful of an afterlife where God would judge him allowed him the intellectual capacity to commit such unspeakable evils. This is a commonly held belief by most who would bring out this tired counter argument to Atheism.

Lets play this idea for a moment, Stalin/Lenin ran dictatorial regimes where free speech, free thought were absolutely oppressed. Those regimes were run much like their previous Czar's, absolute and theocratic in their execution of power. Atheists are famous for some of these few things, free thought, free speech, challenging beliefs of not just religion but political ideas, skepticism, rationality, etc.. Those are not on display in the so called examples of Atheist nations, unless you skip forward to modern times to show shining examples of non religious nations like Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, et al.

You cannot take dictatorial regimes and try to argue them as examples of Atheism, because Atheism is about free speech, democracy and it has to happen by the will of the people not be forced upon them. Ideas cannot be forced, they can only evolve, which was not the case in all the cited examples of why Atheism is bad.

But the underlying idea is that religious apologetics think atheists have a lack of morality since they don't get it from god and the bible. IF this was the case, how can you explain that in the USA atheists account for anywhere between 12-18% of the population yet in prisons they represent around 1% of the prison population.

How do you explain that a free society like Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Norway and Holland have atheist majorities, as high as 80-90% and have by all acceptable ranking standards the highest:

1. Life expectancy
2. Education
3. Social standards (healthcare, free education, 4-5 weeks mandatory vacations)
4. Highest per capita charity contributions in the world.

All which you would expect the opposite of the evil non believers.

In each case of Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Pol Pot, North Korea, et al.... We can explain easily that they resemble religious regimes and that rationalism, humanism, and secularism had nothing to do with the terrible attrocities they caused.

To those that suggest that the last century was the most violent of all time, is also wrong. In tribal earth, 4-20,000 years the average would see 30% to 40% of males murdered in their lifetime due to war, conflict.

The only reason the last century was so bad was because of our ability to do harm is made much easier by advanced techonolgy.

If the crusades happened in the last century, you can bet it would make WW1 and WW2 seem like peace retreats. And why you can't deny the obvious link to religious zealotry (absolutism/dogma) that is the cause and resulting sadness of most of our conflicts and suffering in the world.

So next time people equate Hitler/Stalin to Atheism, remember that Atheism is not a religion, its not even a group organized with a rigid set of ideals/beliefs. Its a NON belief, in which those who state their non belief you have socialists, democrats, liberals, conservatives, market capitalists, vegans, meat eaters, jerks, nice people, stupid people, smart people, etc..

Its tiresome to point out to Christians for example that they are Atheists too, they don't believe in Zeus, they don't follow Odin, they are Atheists just like me, just I took it one more god further than them.

To suggest Atheism is anything like Religion simply stated means you don't understand what Religion is and Atheism is.

Baldness is not a haircut, A TV turned off is not a TV station.