Serious Problems with Atheism

[Rhondazvous]

Well if we want to look at the moral argument, when people blame religion for bombings and wars in general, they seem to ignore the tragic history of the 20th century, which saw more deaths from acts of violence and oppression than all previous centuries put together. These were systematically inflicted on millions of people by their own governments. Names like Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot have become infamous, all atheists. So to say that atheism is this harmless belief system, is very flawed indeed.

No one wants to ignore the tragic history of the 20th century, don't be absurd.

But  - just limiting it to Christianity - can you excuse the horrors of the first nineteen centuries?  Leaving aside violence, Christianity is first and foremost responsible for inculcating feelings of guilt and despondency in people who 'sin'.  The adolescent boy who rubs one out and is told Jesus hates him for it.  The newly pubescent girl who is told that her menstrual cycle - something over which she has absolutely no control - makes her 'unclean', not fit to be around other people.  The woman who is married to an absolute beast of a man, and is told that it is her 'Christian duty' to meekly accept his beatings and a baby a year until she dies.  'Sin' made thought instead of action.  Gay men and women who are told that they'll never get to Heaven for behaving in a manner God created for them to behave.

How many lives have been ruined or self-ended by the horrific guilt Christianity piles on people - no matter how good they are, they are never quite good enough.  Raise a happy healthy and loving family?  Doesn't matter, you're still a sinner.  Give of your time and money to a soup kitchen, or take a foster child into your home?  Who cares?  You're still a sinner.

True story: In Belfast, I used to volunteer at a children's burn ward.  A couple of days every week, for several years, I'd come in to sing and play for the kids, tell them jokes and funny stories - just to take their minds off of what they were going through and the pain they were in.  At one point, the hospital chaplain (a Presbyterian) tried to have me barred from the ward because he didn't want a hell-bound sinner 'corrupting' the children. The hospital admin and the parents made a great show of support for me and the minister backed down.  Not a worry, I'm a big boy and could have dealt with him on my own.  But the worst part was that the kiddies got wind of it.  On one of my visits during the dust-up, one of the little 'uns kept saying over and over to me, 'Promise you won't leave, promise you won't leave.' Needless pain inflicted on a little boy - who was already dealing with more than his share -, all because of a cloth headed minister who would rather have left children in unrelenting misery than have them exposed to someone who wasn't a Christian.

How many more like that, Pulse?  How many people have been subjected to that kind of emotional trauma to satisfy the bigoted, narrow-minded despotism of the Christian faith?  50 millions?  500 millions?

You people have a lot of goddamed gall blaming atheists for human misery.

Boru

It's utterly absurd that Christians try to point to a few decades under communism to excuse centuries of Christian sanctioned bloodshed. The Spanish Conquistador. The Inquisition. The Crusades. Slavery. Witch hunts from the 15th to the 18th century, Martin Luther's international campaign against the Jews that made the Nazis look like a rerun.

If you are going to point to the 20th century then you must include the Church sanctioned Nazis all the women who died needlessly because the Church had the power to make abortion against the law. priest raping young boys.

This, of course, is beside the point. If every atheist on this planet went out and started killing and robbing and raping, that still would not prove the existence of god. So pointing to Stalin is a moot point.