Atheist logic.

I am faced with a disturbing but recurring problem on a regular basis where militant atheists are saying that “religion” should be banned because it always leads to conflict, war and killing. They say these things as fact, and for people that don't have a firm grasp of history, and real facts, it is easy to get misled into believing this partial and blatantly misleading semi-truth. It certainly is true that people have done awful things in the name of religion, and continue to do so, but is it really religion that is to blame?

I am able to address what the Bible says here because I have a working knowledge of it, but I will refrain from delving into the religious texts of other religions simply because I am not so well versed in their contents.

Jesus came to give us a new and better way to live our lives as humans on this beautiful planet and His message was consistent and clear:
- “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39)
- “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them." (Matthew 7:12)
- "Love does no wrong to a neighbour;" (Romans 13:10)
- "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you" (Luke 6:27)
- “Blessed are the peacemakers" (Matthew 5:9)

So we can conclusively say that any Christian/religious leader that calls for violence in any way against our fellow human beings, regardless of the target of their hatred's personal practices, perceived sins, gender, race, religion, geographic area, ideology or any other reason whatsoever, is just simply 100% wrong! This same principle extends to every individual living on Earth. Without exception.

As far as I know most other religious texts have a similar message of love and tolerance.

So now lets get back to the assertion that religion leads to conflicts and wars. Well all I can say is that it has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with people that are ignorant of what their religion teaches and requires of them. It also has a lot to do with power hungry leaders willing to exploit that ignorance to their own advantage in their quest to expand their power and wealth. People of all religions are mislead into committing all sorts of atrocities against other people including their fellow practitioners. This can all be solved by everybody simply reading and studying their Bible, or whichever religious book they use, and making sure that they are so well versed in it's message that when someone comes to them with a false/fake/misleading message they can see it for the fraud it is and ignore them.

Finally, lets take this one step further and use the same logic the militant atheists use and see where that sort of logic actually gets us.

- About 1 000 000 people were killed during the Crusades, which is 1 000 000 too many and while carried out in the name of Christianity falls under the category of an organisation and various governments using religion for gain. Same again for the 30 years war which had about 3 000 000 casualties.
- Under the communist and atheist rule of Pol Pot in Cambodia approximately 3 000 000 people died out of a population of 8 000 000. That equates to more than a third of the population of Cambodia at the time!
- About 5 000 000 died during the Russian Communist revolution alone. The communists were (and still are) atheist.
- Many sources have approximately 45 000 000 Christians, Jews, Gypsies, ethnic minorities, political dissidents, etc. died under avowed atheist Josef Stalin’s rule. The Russian communists killed many more after Stalin's time too.
- Around 56 000 000 Jews, Christians, Gypsies, homosexuals, political opponents, Allied troops, German troops, and other civilians from many countries were killed because of Hitler waging World War 2. Hitler was an evolution believing pagan/atheist who used Christian terminology to mislead people when it suited him but dabbled in the occult for most of his life.
- Under the communist/atheist rule of Mao Zedong in China the figure is estimated to be as high as 100 000 000! The killing there went on for many years after Mao and in fact it is still quite common for political dissenters and Christians to suffer horrible cruelty and death under communist/atheist rule.

(There is more but these are just the main events.)

So then lets tally this up and see where that gets us:
- Religious/”Christian” caused death toll – 4 000 000 (please note that I have the word Christian in parentheses here simply because I do not believe that the perpetrators of those wars were in fact really Christian at all but simply used and abused Christianity to gain wealth and power)
- Atheist caused death toll – 209 000 000

Conclusion? Using the same logic that “religion” should be banned because it leads to conflict, war and death it becomes very clear that actually atheism should be banned because it leads to and causes significantly more war and death.

Next time an atheist presents this argument to you simply quote these figures and use the same logic on them, but please do it in a spirit of humility and love and also present the message of love, tolerance and mutual respect that Jesus taught us.

Just for the record, I do not believe that atheism should be banned, just as I do not believe any type of religion should be banned. God gave us free will to determine our own destiny on Earth (and eternity) and as such it is impossible and also very wrong to try and legislate righteousness. Rather concentrate on winning the world in the best way possible, which is through being an incredible living, talking, walking example of the love of God, a disciple that has been transformed through the power of Jesus and no longer conforms to the ways of this world!

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:16 (NKJV)