Personally religion has caused more damage than its solved. The crusades is evidence of this

Faith in general causes damages - we must all be apatheist.

@Eklipse

Now, if that is the case, then Atheism must also be held accountable in the same manner.

To put this case to rest, i'll say that i partially agree with you.
I would not blame Theism for the islamist suicide bombers or the abortion clinic christian bombers. I would blame the theism-based doctrines associated with it (a certain form of islamism and christianism).
Just like i wouldn't blame atheism for for the soviet union massacres, i would blame the atheism-based docrtine associated with it (a certain form of communism).
The reason is that atheism and theism (atheism is the antonym to theism, not religion) are not associated with any doctrine, juste the fact of having a belief in a deity, or lacking belief in any deity.

There are only so many examples of Religious people acting like assholes because the vast, vast majority of people have been, and remain, religious.

In recent history, with the rise of Marxist atheism and fascism(Both of which were heavily oppressive of religion), we are seeing the millions upon millions of people killed by atheists rising. In world war two, the Nazi party and Stalin's USSR killed around 30-50 Million people, undeniably brutally, and both of these were oppressive Atheist regimes.

China, although having four times the population of the US And having been around for thousands of years, barely even compares to the US in most aspects, due to having been under an oppressive atheist regime for the last 50 years.

the Nazi party and Stalin's USSR killed around 30-50 Million people, undeniably brutally, and both of these were oppressive Atheist regimes.

I'll just copy/paste my previous answer to that, since you probably posted without reading the comment.

Oh boy. Hitler was a Roman Catholic. He persecuted the jews, true enough, but he was not atheist at all. All the nazi had "God with us" on the buckle of their belts for one. And here is a few quote from Hitler:

The anti-Semitism of the new movement (Christian Social movement)
was based on religious ideas instead of racial knowledge.
[Adolf Hitler, “Mein Kampf”, Vol. 1, Chapter 3]

I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty
Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord’s work.
[Adolph Hitler, Speech, Reichstag, 1936]

video footage of Hitler invoking God:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StaPF5qqFDk

There is a long list of Hitler quote here:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/08/23/list-of-hitler-quotes-he-was-q/

I haven't verified all the quote in their context so there might be a bit of quotemining, i don't know, but i think the picture here is quite clear. Hitler was not an atheist.

And regarding USSR and Chine, etc, it makes no sense blaming atheism since atheism is not a doctrine. Just like Theism is not a doctrine. Just read the comments.

Italics are cool

no sense blaming atheism since atheism is not a doctrine.

"L'athéisme est une attitude ou une doctrine qui nie l'existence de quelque dieu ou divinité que ce soit"
- Wikipedia.org

BOLD IS BETTER!!!!

really?

yeah you braindamaged rap rapist! 

angry panda, i'm aware of that wikipedia definition, and it is bad, almost no current atheist would identifies with it. I actually tried to change it one time on the wikipedia but they changed it back. The english definition on wikipedia is far better. (and i guess that's why you put the french one instead of the english one hey?)
Anyway, lets assume atheism a doctrine, what would be its tenant?

Une doctrine (mot attesté en 1160, du latin doctrina, « enseignement », « théorie », « méthode », « doctrine ») est un ensemble global de conceptions d'ordre théorique enseignées comme vraies par un auteur ou un groupe d'auteurs. Les doctrines peuvent être considérées quelquefois comme des utopies.
wikipedia french

Doctrine (from Latin: doctrina or possibly from Sanskrit: dukrn) is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or belief system.
wikipedia english

Go ahead, what are the "global conceptions", or "belief system" of atheism?

It's not actually relevant whether or not hitler himself was religious, although he wasn't. He did want to maintain good relations with the catholic church, which is probably responsible for the quotes you referenced.

What matters is that religion was oppressed in nazi germany. Keep in mind that there were around 8 million nazi's, not just one. Hitler was the face of the nazi party in a lot of ways, but he himself preferred to be thought of as an evangelist to spread the groups message.

You can blame What the Nazi's or stalin did on atheism in the same manner that you can Anything else On theism, that is that you can't.

My points were:

1. It is completely hypocritical to Even presume that Atheists are not capable of committing the same atrocities as theists, or to focus on Evil things that theists have done to make a point about why religion its self is evil.


2. There are more examples of Theists committing said atrocities than atheists because there are a lot more theists in the world than atheists.

https://youtu.be/UwbK1w1jOVU

Im so excited! Can't wait!

1. It is completely hypocritical to Even presume that Atheists are not capable of committing the same atrocities as theists, or to focus on Evil things that theists have done to make a point about why religion its self is evil.

Well nobody presumed that that atheist couldn't do bad things. My point was that atheist or theist must be drove by other motives than just the fact that they believe in god or they don't. Because that's what atheist and theism is, just the fact of believing in a deity or not believing. There is no logical path from going "i believe in god", to "therefore i should do this or that".

However, if you are a religious theist, and you have been told your whole life that there is just one God,and that a certain book is the true word of this all powerful god.
And If it is written in this book that:
-any uncircumcized male should be cut-off from his family (genesis 17:14), or that
-homosexual, unbelievers, sorcerers and what-not deserves to burn in a lake of fire for eternity, or that
-anyone who don't listen to the priest should be put to death (Deuteronomy 17:12), or that
-your god commands you to kill the unbelievers (Quran 2:191), or that
-if you fight and die for your god you will go to heaven (Quran 3:157),
-or.....see where i'm going?

Well then if makes perfect sense that some violence and bad things would come out of it doesn't it?

In the same way, if you are a nationalist and you think that everyone that don't agree with the state should be killed, and this state happens to be atheist, then there is also something bad that would come out of it.

So no it doesn't make sense to hold atheism or theism responsible for the bad things that atheist or theist did. What should be held responsible, to some degree at least, are the doctrines associated with a certain form of communism, christianism and islamism.

2. There are more examples of Theists committing said atrocities than atheists because there are a lot more theists in the world than atheists.

i'm not adding numbers, i'm only criticizing ideologies and doctrines associated with religions. I could do the same for ussr communism, but for some reason i don't think that's much relevent today is it?
Religions based on a book where killings and massacres and divine commands are ever so present, tends to be more violent than others, i'm just saying that maybe there is a connection to be made...that's all.

Edited 8/14/2015 03:12:57

If you believe, as I do, that religion causes more harm than good you should really read Friedrich Nietzsche's Anti-christ. He makes some good points.

Edited 8/14/2015 00:53:44

Well if this is a good book then it would be better for someone who disagree that religion causes more harm than good to read the book. After reading and whatching debates from hitchen and dawkins, i've pretty much see it all.

When I think about it I have to concede that religious ideology has caused people to do horrible things like what the British did when colonizing parts of the world or what ISIS is doing now. I'm also sorry for being a little hostile.

However, if you are a religious theist, and you have been told your whole life that there is just one God,and that a certain book is the true word of this all powerful god.
And If it is written in this book that:
-any uncircumcized male should be cut-off from his family (genesis 17:14), or that
-homosexual, unbelievers, sorcerers and what-not deserves to burn in a lake of fire for eternity, or that
-anyone who don't listen to the priest should be put to death (Deuteronomy 17:12), or that
-your god commands you to kill the unbelievers (Quran 2:191), or that
-if you fight and die for your god you will go to heaven (Quran 3:157),
-or.....see where i'm going?

Although it does say some of those things in the bible, none of them can actually be held accountable for violence committed because of them.

1. This was a command given by God to one family, the family of ths dude named Abraham/His descendents. You'll find that this is the case for a lot of "bad" bible verses from the Old testament. In case you were wondering, he told him this and a whole bunch of other stuff because he wanted them to behave Impeccably since he was giving them like, all this land to live in.

2. This can be taken out of context and used to invoke violence, but it actually says in the Bible that everyone deserves to burn in hell.

3. Again, a command to be followed by Jews.

I'm not even going to try to defend the Quran; I have no kind words for Islam.

Tsh, Christians have done worse then Muslims, The British Empire killed millions, committed genocide quite a few times , set up concentration camps , used forced labour, destroyed many cultures, and left Africa in turmoil. Their excuse? Spreading Christianity. British prayer- "Onward Christian soldiers , into heathen lands, prayer books in your pockets, rifles in your hands, take the happy tidings where trade can be done, spread the peaceful gospel with the Gatling gun"

Edited 8/14/2015 17:37:54

Almost none of the Crusades were actually religious.