The Atheist Obsession with Insulting Christians

[TheRocketSurgeon]

Okay, well then it's simple. Best estimates of the Crusades are 5 million killed in the first four Crusades, while Stalin only killed 2.9 (this number includes deaths in the Gulags and forced relocations, in addition to actual executions).

The thing is, the crusades cant be pinned on just one individual. According to this website, Stalin is responsible for at least 20 million deaths.
http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm#Stalin

That is a valid point, unless one counts the Popes (and their "go Crusading!" commands) as a single personage for purposes of determining the cause of those deaths.

We also run into the problem of how to tally the deaths. For instance, when talking of Stalin, those estimates are of total numbers who died as a result of his programs, a huge number of which had to do with the harsh conditions of cold and disease in the Siberian work camps (gulags), or deaths during the hardships of forced relocation, rather than outright execution by violence. I would agree that we can still lay those deaths at the feet of Stalin, but that's very different from the original question of, "were these people killed because of Stalin's atheism?", as a cause for mass murder based on his atheist beliefs. The total number of executions in the name of state power is much less than the total death count, and even when we consider the executions, it cannot be shown that it was done because of atheism.

Just like Hitler's Christianity/Catholicism doesn't count as the motive for his killings, because it was done in the name of German Purity and Nazi power-grabbing, Stalin's killings were done for no other purpose than to quell anyone who resisted the rising power of the communist government. It is fundamentally dishonest to blame empire-building on the fact that he was an atheist. (I have also argued in a paper, back in college, that the Crusades weren't really about religion, but about expanding power by gaining control of vital trade routes and centers of commerce in that region, at that time in history, and that the Church just used religion as an excuse to gain volunteers for their armies.)

Interesting. He makes demands of us to prove our point, and then when I go out of my way to find the actual facts behind the discussion, he doesn't respond to a single one of my posts.

Quel suprise.

What facts? You provided not one source.

Are you kidding? Maybe you're missing the links that I provided within the document. Look for the highlighted words; those are links.

And as you can see, I removed my comment as soon as I saw you had actually replied to me. Since we went several pages without you even acknowledging my replies, I thought you were ignoring me. My apologies.

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Edited to Add: According to the website you provided, the "best estimate" breakdown of the 20M figure is as follows:

Although it's too early to be taking sides with absolute certainty, a consensus seems to be forming around a death toll of 20 million. This would adequately account for all documented nastiness without straining credulity:
In The Great Terror (1969), Robert Conquest suggested that the overall death toll was 20 million at minimum -- and very likely 50% higher, or 30 million. This would divide roughly as follows: 7M in 1930-36; 3M in 1937-38; 10M in 1939-53. By the time he wrote The Great Terror: A Re-assessment (1992), Conquest was much more confident that 20 million was the likeliest death toll.
Britannica, "Stalinism": 20M died in camps, of famine, executions, etc., citing Medvedev
Brzezinski: 20-25 million, dividing roughly as follows: 7M destroying the peasantry; 12M in labor camps; 1M excuted during and after WW2.

[Bold emphasis my own.]

It's very important that we distinguish between those killed and those who simply died, not because the deaths cannot be laid at the feet of Stalin (obviously!), but because the deaths cannot be said to be executions of those in the name of his atheist philosophies. I have no doubt that Stalin promptly forgot about the people he sent "away" to Siberian mines and logging camps to provide resources for the Soviet empire.

If you're just going to say that "Stalin killed a lot of people and his actions resulted in the deaths of a lot more people, and he was an atheist, so HA! atheists", then you're just being an inflammatory bigot toward atheists. It is just as wrong to compare us to him, in his empire-building, power-grabbing context, as it is when atheists compare you to Torquemada.