Mark Farnon provides a post which deals with the common charge that through history more people have died in the name of religion than any other cause.
In addition to making some observations about the number of deaths which occurred during the Inquisition or the witchhunts, the following is also included:
According to research conducted by the political scientist Rudolph Rummel at the University of Hawaii, the officially atheist states of the Communist bloc committed more acts of genocide than any societies in governments in the twentieth century-communist, socialist, fascist-equals about 170 million.
- USSR: 61 million people murdered 1917-1987
- Communist China: 35,2 million people murdered 1949-present
- Mao’s army: 3.4 million people murdered 1923-1949
- Nazi Germany: 20 million people murdered 1932-1945
- Communist Poland: 1.6 million people murdered 1945-1948
- Communist Cambodia: 2 million people murdered 1975-1979
- Communist Vietnam: 1.6 million people murdered 1945-1975
- Communist Yugoslavia: 1 million people murdered 1944-1987
- Anti-Christian Mexican Revolution: 1.4 million people murdered 1900-1920
- Turkey:1.8 million people murdered 1900-1918
- Pakistan: 1.5 million people murdered 1958-1987
- Japan: 5.9 million people murdered 1936-1945
…Rummel’s conclusion is as shocking as it is inescapable: War wasn’t the most deadly evil to afflict humanity in the twentieth century. Government was! And not just any government, but atheist government.
Read the whole post here.
First things first: Any death inflicted in order to coerce conformity to Christian faith is abominable.
Second things second: this is not an argument against atheism as such, but challenges the common assertion that religion has resulted in more death and wars than any other cause.
mgpcpastor's blog 