Is it true that atheists do not go to war?

Question

Or is true that atheists (just like any religous people) can be just as bad as anyone else? Weren't Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot atheists? This is not meant to attack atheists. I realize that most of you would not want to kill people just for having a religion. Do you also realize that most religious people (of all the various faiths) are not intolerant fundamentalists spreading ignorance and hatred? Do you see the intolerance that also emanates from some in your own camp?

Answer 1

> Is it true that atheists do not go to war?

While some atheists are pacifists, this is by no means universally true. Many atheists proudly serve their countries in the military. There are many atheists in foxholes.

> Or is true that atheists can be just as bad as anyone else?

Yes, we have all the usual human weaknesses.

> Weren't Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot atheists?

Yes and no. They worshiped themselves.

> Do you also realize that most religious people are not
> intolerant fundamentalists spreading ignorance and hatred?

Yes, I realize that. It's incorrect to stereotype all religious persons as fundamentalists.

> Do you see the intolerance that also emanates from
> some in your own camp?

Yes, and I find it very disturbing, too.

Answer 2

This atheist will not go to war, but there are many atheists serving in the Armed Forces right now. I am friends with two (and one pagan, as well).

Atheists are people, and of course have the capability of being "bad" just like anyone else. Yes, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot were atheists; however, they committed the atrocities they committed NOT because they were atheists, but because they were sickos. Often, crimes perpetrated by the religious have been conducted IN THE NAME OF that religion--there is a large moral difference there.

Yes, I realize that most religious people are not intolerant fundamentalists. However, those that are intolerant fundamentalists are spoiling the pot for everyone; they are the face of their various religions in most cases, and so they are the theists we must deal with.

Yes, there are many so-called militant atheists who are intolerant of any theism whatsoever. I am not one of them. Again, this is the difference between religion and atheism--we are not a defined group, committing acts in the name of atheism. Other atheists do not speak for me; I speak for myself and myself only.

Answer 3

It is false that atheists don't go to war. However they don't go into war in the name of atheism.

I also accept that most religious people are not fundamentalists. But the minority who are, are a very vocal minority.

I disagree that intolerance also emanates from 'our own camp' as I don't accept that there is an atheism camp. The only thing atheists have in common with one another is that we don't believe in gods. That's not much of a link to form a camp.

I do accept that there are intolerant atheists. But that is because they are intolerant people. Atheis

Answer 4

People are quick to point out the violence associated when religions clash (i.e. the Crusades, the Reformation, etc.) But what about the 100+ million who perished at the hands of left-wing atheist "progressives" such as the ones you mentioned? That was in the 20th century alone. Religious wars are nothing compared to that.

Left-wing extremists HATE religious institutions and religious people (just look at the atheist hate-mongers on Yahoo Answers on any given day.)

They worship the almighty state, and treat people who worship God as a rival sect that must be stamped out. They believe that religion is "opium for the masses" and that it deters you from your obligations to the State.

It starts with "In God we trust" off the currency, and "under God" out of the pledge of allegiance, and it ends with the demolition of your church and you being thrown into a "re-education camp."

Ever wonder how it can be possible that Washington D.C. with all its religious monuments, was built in the early 1800's right under the nose of the authors of the Constitution? AND NOBODY CARED???? But now "progressives" (aka Socialists) come along and want all the symbols destroyed, deeming them "unconstitutional."

I guess the guys who wrote the Constitution really didn't know what they were doing, and we need the left-wingers to tell us.

Answer 5

you say you don't want to offend people but you do. You compare atheism to Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot. Ignorance and hatred stems from the mind and not from religion. So if you are not sure what you are asking or if you are just trying to make some random point please dont waste the space here on Yahoo Answer - I'm sure others have better things to do.

Answer 6

Your question is more like a statement. Atheists do not go to war - I mean that would be a HUGE generality. Open up your mind and think about it really just for a second. All kinds of people go to war - atheists, believers, agnostics. Intolerance comes from all people in all walks of life, stages of belief or disbelief.

Answer 7

Your questions is inapplicable. Atheism is merely the lack of belief in (a) god and nothing else. You're juxtaposing atheism with war but there's no defining association between the two. Besides, most atheists are humanists and don't believe in war. They believe in a global community that religion, ethnicity and heritage tends to keep seperate.

Answer 8

Sure we will go to war. I spent a big chunk of the end of the Cold War in the Army. We just have one less big thing to fight about.

The problem with communism is that it demands faith without evidence the same as a religion. It is too much like a religion itself and that allows it to cause conflict and injustice in a very similar manor to religions.

The big thing is that those were bad people. They didn't become bad BECAUSE they were atheists just as Hitler didn't do what he did because he was a Christian. I could rattle off a pretty long list of people who did horrible things because of Christianity however. I even could rattle off a pretty long list of your God doing horrible things.

Answer 9

what about Thomas Jefferson. he was an atheist. Your right about intolerance being in both groups but i think the world would be better off with more atheist than religious people. the guys you listed above didnt kill in the name of a god

Answer 10

Of course you're right. The only point to be made here is that religion doesn't make a difference.

The most Christian nation in Europe was led to perpetrate the Holocaust. Could it have happened to a nation of atheists under Hitlers leadership? Perhaps, although in this particular example many scholars would argue that centuries of Christian antisemitism made it all possible.

The point is religion is no better at preventing murder and genocide than is any other ideology. And in many cases, it has proven to be perhaps much better at *perpetrating* it.