Claims of Evil
Religion according to the Atheist: Sam Harris - “the most potent source of human conflict, past and present.” Steve Pinker - “Religion has given us stonings, witch-burnings, crusades, inquisitions, jihads, fatwas, suicide bombers, and abortion clinic gunmen.” Steve Pinker - “massacre Midianites, stone prostitutes, execute homosexuals, slay heretics and infidels, throw Protestants out of windows, withhold medicine from dying children, and crash airplanes into skyscrapers.” Robert Kuttner - “The Crusades slaughtered millions in the name of Jesus. The Inquisition brought the torture and murder of millions more. After Martin Luther, Christians did bloody battle with other Christians for another three centuries.”
Is it true? No.
Stonings was not a creation of religion, it was no more a creation of religion than crucifixion was a creation of Christianity. Witch-burnings, wrong, yes, but even Sam Harris estimates that the number killed is much lower than many of his fellow Atheists presume. Crusades? They were sanctioned by the Church, yes, but they were more political than you may think. Look at the history of who first held Jerusalem (the West), and who was the initial aggressor (the Muslims) and you will begin to see that as Dinesh D’Souza puts it, “The Crusades can be seen as a belated, clumsy, and unsuccessful effort to defeat Islamic imperialism.” The threat of the islamic invasion was great. They held a foothold on Europe itself for centuries! Something many conveniently forget. The Inquisition? Historians are finding that the tales of the horrors of the Inquisition are mostly fabricated. They never targeted Jews, only Christians, and most of the punishments were mild. Community service, or small penances or fasting. Were people executed by the inquisition? Yes. But again, not as high as the Atheists presume. Withholding medicine from dying children? Exceedingly rare and certainly not mainstream. Radical outliers at best, not fundamental Christianity. Slaying heretics and infidels, crashing airplanes, jihads, fatwas, suicide bombers? These are all confusing Christianity with a different religion there. Abortion clinic gunmen? Radicals who go against all that Jesus teaches. Nothing in the religion of Jesus Christ does any of these things find their source. But here is the real kicker. “The most potent source of human conflict, past and presence” can actually be proven to be the philosophy of Atheism.
Communism is adamantly atheistic. Stalin killed 20 million of his own people. Mao Ze Dong of China, 70 million. Hitler only killed 10 million (and despite Atheistic ploys, Hitler was NOT a Christian. He despised the religion and persecuted the church.) Other Atheistic rulers (all have been despotic tyrants by the way) all have high death tolls that follow them around. Pol Pot (who killed ⅕ of the population of his country), Enver Hoxha, Nicolae Ceausescu, Fidel Castro, Kim Jong-Il, etc.
Even taking the top three, Russia, China, and Nazi Germany, atheistic despots have killed over one hundred million people in less than a century!
Dinesh D’Souza gives us the run down. “The world’s population rose from around 500 million in 1450AD to 2.5 billion in 1950. A five fold increase. Taken together, the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the witch burnings killed approximately 200,000 people. Adjusting for the increase in population, that’s the equivalent of one million deaths today. Even so, these deaths cause by Christian rulers over a five hundred year period amount to only 1% of the deaths caused by Stalin, Hitler, and Mao in the space of a few decades.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky - “Without God and the future life? How will man be after that? It means everything is permitted now.”
No God, no reigns, no limits.
Evil in the world? Nothing compares to the death count of the Atheist philosophy.
“God is dead. We have killed him. Now we can do whatever we wish.” And why not? Without God, there is no after life to be judged in. Right?
Like a child closing his eyes, saying “you can’t see me!”
At least let’s be honest, before picking the speck out of your brother’s eye, let’s notice the plank!
Jared Williams
Is it true? No.
Stonings was not a creation of religion, it was no more a creation of religion than crucifixion was a creation of Christianity. Witch-burnings, wrong, yes, but even Sam Harris estimates that the number killed is much lower than many of his fellow Atheists presume. Crusades? They were sanctioned by the Church, yes, but they were more political than you may think. Look at the history of who first held Jerusalem (the West), and who was the initial aggressor (the Muslims) and you will begin to see that as Dinesh D’Souza puts it, “The Crusades can be seen as a belated, clumsy, and unsuccessful effort to defeat Islamic imperialism.” The threat of the islamic invasion was great. They held a foothold on Europe itself for centuries! Something many conveniently forget. The Inquisition? Historians are finding that the tales of the horrors of the Inquisition are mostly fabricated. They never targeted Jews, only Christians, and most of the punishments were mild. Community service, or small penances or fasting. Were people executed by the inquisition? Yes. But again, not as high as the Atheists presume. Withholding medicine from dying children? Exceedingly rare and certainly not mainstream. Radical outliers at best, not fundamental Christianity. Slaying heretics and infidels, crashing airplanes, jihads, fatwas, suicide bombers? These are all confusing Christianity with a different religion there. Abortion clinic gunmen? Radicals who go against all that Jesus teaches. Nothing in the religion of Jesus Christ does any of these things find their source. But here is the real kicker. “The most potent source of human conflict, past and presence” can actually be proven to be the philosophy of Atheism.
Communism is adamantly atheistic. Stalin killed 20 million of his own people. Mao Ze Dong of China, 70 million. Hitler only killed 10 million (and despite Atheistic ploys, Hitler was NOT a Christian. He despised the religion and persecuted the church.) Other Atheistic rulers (all have been despotic tyrants by the way) all have high death tolls that follow them around. Pol Pot (who killed ⅕ of the population of his country), Enver Hoxha, Nicolae Ceausescu, Fidel Castro, Kim Jong-Il, etc.
Even taking the top three, Russia, China, and Nazi Germany, atheistic despots have killed over one hundred million people in less than a century!
Dinesh D’Souza gives us the run down. “The world’s population rose from around 500 million in 1450AD to 2.5 billion in 1950. A five fold increase. Taken together, the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the witch burnings killed approximately 200,000 people. Adjusting for the increase in population, that’s the equivalent of one million deaths today. Even so, these deaths cause by Christian rulers over a five hundred year period amount to only 1% of the deaths caused by Stalin, Hitler, and Mao in the space of a few decades.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky - “Without God and the future life? How will man be after that? It means everything is permitted now.”
No God, no reigns, no limits.
Evil in the world? Nothing compares to the death count of the Atheist philosophy.
“God is dead. We have killed him. Now we can do whatever we wish.” And why not? Without God, there is no after life to be judged in. Right?
Like a child closing his eyes, saying “you can’t see me!”
At least let’s be honest, before picking the speck out of your brother’s eye, let’s notice the plank!
Jared Williams
