Absolute Power is the
Number One Killer
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to your Atheist friends. ~KS è Absolute Power is the #1 Killer - taken from
factual data found here http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/ Many atheists claim that religion is evil and, as such, cannot be from
God. It is true that there are many examples of evil committed in the name of
Christianity. In the past, those who disagreed with "official"
church doctrine, such as Galileo were persecuted or killed. Many other
Christians were brought before the Inquisition because they were teaching
from the Bible instead of from "officially sanctioned" Roman
Catholic Church materials. In addition, the Crusades resulted in
"holy" wars between "Christians," Jews, and Moslems. In
more modern times, wars have been fought between Catholics and Protestants in
However, common to all this violence was an underlying struggle for
power. I absolutely agree with atheists and others who say that many
atrocious things have been done in the name of God, and even in the name of
Christianity. However, these atrocities were not perpetrated by
God, but by evil human beings. If we look at the history of democide (which includes genocide, politicide,
and mass murder, but not war-dead) prior to the 20th century, we find that
millions of people were killed by people groups who wanted the other people
groups eliminated. Note that these numbers do not include those killed
through wars.
What percentage of these killings were due to religious democide? It is less than 3% of the totals.
The surprising thing is that these killings occurred during a period
of time when virtually all the peoples of the world were involved in some
sort of religion. Here is the data for the 20th century:
Vox Day, in The Irrational Atheist, lists
22 atheistic regimes that committed 153,368,610 murders in the 20th
century alone:
What percentage of this democide was due to
religious conflict? It turns out that religious democide
doesn't even make the top 20 (although I am sure there is some in the
"lesser murderers" category. Still, the total religious killings is
less than 2%. In fact, the top two killers were specifically atheistic states
(which had never existed before in human history). Should atheism be blamed
for more than 50% of the atrocities committed during the 20th century? The
answer of course is No! If one examines the nature of the regimes that
committed these atrocities (even the religious ones), the key factor is
absolute power. According to Professor R.J. Rummel,
in the 1816-2005 period there were 205 wars between non-democracies, 166 wars
between non-democracies and democracies, and 0 wars between democracies. Lord
Acton's warning that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts
absolutely" seems to be more than just a trite saying. Yes, some who claim to be Christian have committed atrocities
against other religious and non-religious people. However, atheists have
committed far more atrocities than all religious groups combined. Even so, the key factor in these atrocities has been totalitarian
power, rather than religion, which has resulted in these hundreds of millions
of murders. Conclusion: This argument which is used often by the
Atheist is false as the facts prove so clearly. |
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