Who Kills More, Religion or Atheism?

[Watchman]

I was involved in a similar debate some time ago on another Forum with a guy who called himself Blackadder during the course of which I posted this , hope the numbers help....


"Now when it came to researching Religious Wars , I had several problems ,time was a major factor then there was the reliability of the sources , particularly the further back in time you go the less accurate the figures and the fewer the sources you find to check against.
So in order to complete the task in something like an acceptable time frame I limited my field of search to the period between the 16th century and the 20th century. I also chose to include only those conflicts with a solely religious cause. For instance I did not count the Battle of the Boyne campaign as I found that Protestant King William’s army had nearly as many catholics in it as Catholic King James’ army. Thus , whatever else the conflict was about it was not religion despite what many will tell you today.

Any way here is what I found …

In the 16th century there were four major religious conflicts… 3,100,000 dead.
Spanish Armada 1588. 30,000 dead.
Huguenot Wars (France) 1562-1598. 2,830,000 dead.
St. Bartholemews Day Massacre (France) 1572. 70,000 dead.
Dutch Revolt 1566-1609 100,000 dead.


In the 17th century there were three major religious conflicts… 8,405,000 dead.
English Civil War 1642-1646 868,000 dead.
Shimabara Revolt (Japan) 1637-1638 37,000 dead.
The Thirty Years War (Europe)1618-1648 7,500,000 dead.

In the 18th century there was one major religious conflict… 10,000 dead.
Massacre of Catholic Converts in Korea 1784-1794 10,000 dead.

In the 19th century there were six major religious conflicts… 25,780,000 dead.
Bahai Massacres (Persia) 1848-1854 20,000 dead.
Boxer Rebellion (China) 1899-1901. 115,000 dead.
Christian/Druse War (Lebanon) 1860 . 15,000 dead.
Mahdist Sudanese Wars 1881-1898 5,500,000 dead.
Taiping Rebellion (China) 1850-1864 20,000,000 dead.
Massacre of Catholic Converts in Vietnam 1832-1887 130,000 dead.

In the 20th century there were fourteen major religious conflicts… 1,278,887 dead.
Algerian Islamist Uprising 1992 100,000 dead.
Croatian War 1991-1992 25,000 dead.
Bosnian War 1992 -1995 175,000.
Hindu-Moslem riots in India 1992-2002 8,600 dead.
India/Pakistan Partition 1947 500,000 dead.
Iran Islamist Rebellion 1979 2,500 dead.
Iraq Shiite Rising 1991-1992 40,000 dead.
Lebanese War 1975-1992 150,000 dead.
Molluca Islands Christian/Muslim conflict 1999 - ? 5,000 dead.
Mongolia Stalinist destruction of Buddhism 1937-1939 30,000 dead.
Russian Pogroms 1905-1906 95,000 dead.
Nigeria Christian/Muslim conflict 1992- ? 53,787 dead.
Arab/Israeli Wars 1948- ? 78,000 dead.
Sikh uprising in India 1982-1991 16,000 dead.

Now Blackadder I have to disagree with your previous assertion that” your point is void of religion causing more disruption. “ IE that these wars would have happened anyway if religion did not exist.
Study the list ,check the facts , don’t just go with my figures …check for yourself …then you’ll see that each of these deaths is directly attributable to religion and would not have happened if religion did not exist….all those lives….all that human potential … wiped out for what..?
For nothing … for a con.
How many potential Mozarts , how many Einsteins ,how many Schweitzers ….
How much further advanced would civilisation be if these individuals had been able to have their input.

Odd that the number of “wars” dropped during the “Enlightenment” and even odder that the numbers are increasing now.
Also has anyone got any idea of what happened in 1992 where many of the current crop seem to have their roots.