I can feel your anger

[The Grand Nudger]

Is it so difficult to imagine how and why an elaborate and dense myth structure might contribute or facilitate idiotic shit like killing in the name of a voice in your head? Conversely is it difficult to understand how and why ones lack of belief in that same myth structure might lead to entirely different conclusions when presented with the same voice in ones head?

Gods/No Gods, of the two only one set is actually capable of issuing orders (or so the story is told). Now, whether or not you trust those orders or carry out such a divine command (if you had received such a thing) is another issue entirely. For an atheist, it's pretty cut and dry. If you hear a voice that says "I am god your god and I command you to kill so and so" you go get your head checked. Hopefully a theist does the same, but the question then becomes....why? Does god not speak to people, does god not command his followers to violence? Any answer meant to sidestep these issues only makes it even stickier.

So, in a way Sell, I agree with you, placing the onus on religion is bullshit. Gods don't command anything to anyone, they don't exist. Sadly, that's not how the zealously faithful perceive this scenario and only then does it become important to point out how often (and how transparently) religion has commanded violent shit without the help of any gods whatsoever. Am I implying here that religion is solely and uniquely responsible for violence, that an atheist world would be a utopia? LOL, no, I don't believe in fairy tales remember? Last I checked "utopia" was a booming market for the faithful, and constantly invoked in precisely these sorts of "godwillsit" scenarios. Martyrs, seats of the righteous in the kingdom of heaven type shit. No, I'm very much aware of how violent we can be given any reason what-so-ever, and those acts of violence carried out under the banner of a god only stand out to me as particularly ridiculous examples of this. Personally, I don't place the blame for anything on religion (I think that this is undeserved credit), I place the blame for all manner of idiotic/amusing/violent shit on human beings, and this group of activities includes within it religion.

@Clive, "stamping out religion" isn't some atheist agenda, or an atheist commandment. Governments like the one you mentioned are in the habit of stamping out any competition for authority, consider that devoutly religious governments in history have tried to "stamp out religion" -just, you know, other peoples religions.

Atheism: I don't believe -FULL STOP-
Atheism as presented by those intent of making reference to Stalin or Pol-Pot: I don't believe -ergo I'm going to violently eliminate those that do-

So, whereabouts in "I don't believe" do we find the atheist command to eradicate the faithful (or anyone, for that matter)? Now, I could tell you that there are some folks I'd love to eliminate, but you'd be hard-pressed to connect that in any way to my atheism. You know what though, this is an unfair comparison. Power has been in the hands of the faithful for so long that there are bound to have been complete assholes for us atheists to point at and say "Look at what this guy did in the name of god!" Give atheism some time, you may yet see the sort of shit you're forcing poor Stalin and Pol-Pot into. Patience is a virtue.