"ATHEISTS HAVE NEVER PERSECUTED, OPPRESSED,
OR KILLED ANYONE, UNLIKE THE "HYPOCRITICAL" AND "VIOLENT"
RELIGIONS."
Anyone who believes that atheists have never killed
or oppressed in the name of their beliefs hasn't read their history.
Part 1 - Mass Killings Comitted by Atheists Against Religious
Believers
Continue to Part 2
Atheists routinely cite periods in history such as the Crusades, the Troubles,
and Inquisition as "proof" that religious people are inherently
oppressive, intolerant, close-minded and violent, compared to "rational
and peaceful" atheists. Despite the sarcastic, satirical claims of atheist
innocence by some (including propaganda songs such as "Atheist Peace"
by Bad Religion), the reality is starkly different—atheists and anti-religious
people in general have just as many bloody skeletons in their closet as the
world's religions do.
The Soviet Union's history has been pockmarked with many mass killings, imprisonment,
exile, harassment, and persecution of religions and their believers. Soviet
policy toward religion based itself on Marxism-Leninism, which made atheism
the state 'religion' of the Soviet Union. Marxism-Leninism calls for "religious
cleansing" through execution, suppression, and control, ending with complete
annihilation of non-atheist views.
The record of anti-religious atrocities does not end there.
During the 1970's, the Chinese-backed and staunchly atheist Khmer Rogue took control of Cambodia. Though they overtly granted freedom of religion in their constitution, they reneged violently on this freedom, starting one of history's bloodiest genocides. The atheists banned religion, instituted a death penalty for those caught praying in public, and desecrated or destroyed temples and churches.
The modern-day democratic Cambodian government estimates that as many as 1.2
million Cambodians perished under Pol Pot and his atheist Khmer Rogue, for varying
reasons—studies from Yale suggest nearly 2 million died. Several studies
examining census reports taken from before and after the Cambodian genocide
suggest the country lost 20% of its population. A safe estimate of those
killed purely because they were religious would be around 100,000, but this
number could be—and likely is—much higher.
Atheists commonly try to dismiss or ignore these historical events (and the
greater scope of atrocities committed by atheists for various reasons) as being
"merely political." These events demonstrate that many have died or
oppressed specifically from atheist intolerance of religion, and not
merely political ideals.