When It Comes to Killing in the Name of Religion and Nationhood, Christians Hold the Modern Record
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Here we go again. Sorry, Charlie, but this is simply not the case.
According to R.J. Rummel, arguably the world’s foremost expert on death throughout history, the #1 perpetrator of death, particularly in the last 200 years, was: atheism.
Rummel has estimated the total number of people killed or murdered by ALL religions – throughout all of recorded history – at ~100 million. This includes Crusades, holy wars, inquisitions, pogroms, witch hunts, etc. Yet he estimated the number of people killed or murdered by just four people – Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot – at ~150 million in just 75 years! And he points out that the majority of those who died under those regimes died as the result of SPECIFICALLY anti-theist policies. And if we add in Hitler (who was a pagan, not a Christian, despite his claims, rhetoric and symbols), we can add another 13 million to that number.
As an aside, it is important to remember that slavery was primarily an economic, not religious, matter, as was the “Manifest Destiny” that caused the largest genocide in history. And although there were elements of religion involved, those were secondary.
Religion certainly has its share of atrocities, and each of the Abrahamic monotheistic faiths has blood on its hands (though, as an aside, and contrary to this article, it is a fact that Christianity has engaged in LESS of this over the past 500 years as Islam has somewhat increased its engagement in it.) But the fact is that NO religion has done as much in terms of death as atheism has.
Ultimately, however, it is time to stop this senseless and unconstructive (and arguably DEstructive) debate about who caused more death than whom. Religion and atheism have both caused their fair share. It’s time to stop the “he said, she said” and start finding common ground or we will simply continue to alienate each other instead of coming together to actually address the broad issues that concern us all.
Peace.
Posted on 25-Apr-13 at 11:02 pm | Permalink