I am really tired of silly arguments based on countries like China or the old Soviet Union claiming that atheists have also done bad things, therefore atheism can motivate evil just as much as religion can. Of course atheists have also been guilty of evil - but the lack of belief fuels human behaviour as much as the lack of petroleum fuels a car. Atheists who happen to have other agendas - political, social, economic, or whatever, certainly have been mean and nasty in the past - but not because they were atheists. Ive never heard of someone who bombed or maimed or murdered or tortured due to their lack of belief. The same cannot be said of believers. NOTE: I am in no way asserting that all believers are immoral, or that all atheists are moral. I am asserting that religious faith (which has no evidential basis, mind you) has the potential to motivate heinous behaviour, whereas the lack of belief, by definition, cannot. States like China and the Soviet Union are motivated by the fear of the potential power base that religious followings represent. They are not doing what they do because they dont believe in god. They are doing what they do because large groups of believers potentially threaten their hold on authority. The argument is dishonest. I am a humanist - now thats different ground. One could certainly claim that I act on the basis of humanist principles, or even that I am a hypocrite when I fail to do so. One cannot claim that I act because of the absence of something. As a closing thought - if you want to claim that because some atheist states or individuals have done bad things, those states or individuals are motivated by their atheism, consider this first: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 11:12:54 +0000
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