The following is a response to a statement made by mythoughtsnwords about how awful religion is and how many bad things we’ve done over the years. Needless to say, this is a complete misrepresentation of facts. Let it never be said in your hearing, dear reader, that such nonsense is true. The facts stand ever in our favor, and just a few moments of research can demonstrate this quite handily. Read on.
mythoughtsnwords:
[D]id you know that the greatest atrocities ever committed on this planet have been in the name of God[?]
No they haven’t, and I’m sorry that someone lied to you. If you look at this site—not a Christian apologetics site, by the way, but a man who writes books about this kind of thing for a living—and scroll to the table of “(Possibly) The Twenty (or so) Worst Things People Have Done to Each Other,” you’ll see that one of those was religious in nature,—the Muslim invasion of India, for which I owe no apology, concluding that Islam is indeed a violent religion—and three of those (Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Zedung) were atheistic in nature. I’ll examine some of your later accusations in detail, but let’s just take a quick look at the atrocities of just those three atheistic regimes, just for some context. (By the way, that site’s author has this to say about your claims.)
Joseph Stalin: No less than 11 million people died under his regime. Hitler, no fewer than 10 million people. Mao Zedong killed 40 million. All of these figures come from this source, which has done a survey of the literature. I took the lowest figure given for each regime. The total? 61,000,000 people. 61 million. And that’s not counting deaths of foreign soldiers in the wars. Religion will have to work pretty hard to keep up with that death toll. Oh, and by the way, do you know how many years this spanned? Stalin started in 1924, and Zedong ended in 1975. That’s 51 years, or 1,196,078 people dead every year, on average. And remember that these are very conservative estimates, with more realistic numbers spread across the 100 millions.
mythoughtsnwords:
[T]he US was founded on the Puritans, for the expressed [sic] purpose of oppression free worship.
Yes it was. If you agree with that, stop trying to oppress my freedom of both religion and speech. All I am doing is preaching the Gospel. You claim to espouse free worship, so let me worship freely.
mythoughtsnwords:
Your attitude is the same arrogant, fearful fundamentalism that fueled the hatred of the Crusades an [sic] the attacks on 9/11.
Both of these events, the Crusades and 9/11, are incredibly tragic, and I would hope that no one ever forgets these atrocities. 9/11 I don’t have to defend, because I agree that Islam is not a religion of peace. I’ll still take the death toll into account for the final tally.
The Crusades were, at their heart, a war about land. Religious motivations are clearly evident, and one must be a fool to deny that, but at the same time, the Crusades were sparked by the Turkish invasion of Jerusalem, and the subsequent massacre of the Christians there (for an interesting essay on the Crusades, read this). Was it right? No. Was it strictly religious?—in other words, was it something that was taught by the Christian religion? Absolutely not. In fact, Christ Himself taught to “turn the other cheek” (Matt. 5:39). The Pope, denying the teachings of Christ, instead chose to exercise an “eye for an eye” mentality. My point is this: The Crusades were not the result of “Christian fundamentalism.” It was the result of human pride denying the love that Christ taught. That being said, let’s take a look at the death tolls of religion, starting with the Crusades.
According to the same source as earlier, and taking the highest possible death count for each event, and giving you several events you never listed, and taking responsibility for religious events that were not Christian in origin, we begin with the Crusades, weighing in at 9 million total deaths [source]. We’ll move on to witch hunts in Europe, the greatest estimates (none of which are cited favorably, and are probably grossly overestimated) being another 9 million deaths [source]. The Spanish Inquisition adds another 350,000 to this total [source]. Add another 37 for the Salem Witch Trials [source], and, most recently, the 9/11 attacks and the 3,037 deaths caused by them [source, plus the 19 terrorist]—something that Christianity could never be blamed for, but I’ve added here anyway—and the total number of deaths caused by religion, spanning the 905 years from 1096 to 2001, is 18,353,074.
That’s roughly %70 fewer deaths at the hands of religion than atheism; a mere 20,279 deaths per year compared to atheism’s 1 million and change. Your argument falls apart in face of the facts. Face it: What your argument really shows is that people are selfish and do bad things to other people. Religion may stem the tide, but even the most pious of our race are subjected to their sin nature. Mankind is evil, through and through.
mythoughtsnwords:
If we are not allowed to worship God in groups and individuals free from persecution and respectful tolerance, there is only one outcome. Again, TOLERANCE. the RESPECT of others! :)
You seem to be intolerant of my preaching of the Gospel. That’s a little hypocritical of you, isn’t it? Why is your position exempt from it’s own standard? That hardly seems right. Perhaps you should respect my belief that I must preach the Gospel lest others perish and I be held accountable for it. Can you do that? Because it doesn’t seem like it. Maybe we can all grow up and agree that disagreement and hatred are not synonymous; just because I think you’re wrong doesn’t mean I’m going to kill you.
