At the Christian Science Monitor website, Mr. D'Souza writes:
"These figures [number of victims due to the Inquisition and the Crusades] are tragic, and of course population levels were much lower at the time. But even so, they are minuscule compared with the death tolls produced by the atheist despotisms of the 20th century. In the name of creating their version of a religion-free utopia, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong produced the kind of mass slaughter that no Inquisitor could possibly match. Collectively these atheist tyrants murdered more than 100 million people."
Afterwards, he refutes some claims that are made in End of Faith (by Sam Harris) and The God Delusion (by Richard Dawkins) in order to show that they are holding Christianity responsible for the crimes committed in its name, while exonerating secularism and atheism for the greater crimes committed in their name.
He concludes:
"Whatever the motives for atheist bloodthirstiness, the indisputable fact is that all the religions of the world put together have in 2,000 years not managed to kill as many people as have been killed in the name of atheism in the past few decades.
It's time to abandon the mindlessly repeated mantra that religious belief has been the greatest source of human conflict and violence. Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history."
(D'Souza, D. (11/26/2006), "Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history", http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1121/p09s01-coop.html)
Can you spot the fallacies?
PS: The text between square brackets is added by me.
"These figures [number of victims due to the Inquisition and the Crusades] are tragic, and of course population levels were much lower at the time. But even so, they are minuscule compared with the death tolls produced by the atheist despotisms of the 20th century. In the name of creating their version of a religion-free utopia, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong produced the kind of mass slaughter that no Inquisitor could possibly match. Collectively these atheist tyrants murdered more than 100 million people."
Afterwards, he refutes some claims that are made in End of Faith (by Sam Harris) and The God Delusion (by Richard Dawkins) in order to show that they are holding Christianity responsible for the crimes committed in its name, while exonerating secularism and atheism for the greater crimes committed in their name.
He concludes:
"Whatever the motives for atheist bloodthirstiness, the indisputable fact is that all the religions of the world put together have in 2,000 years not managed to kill as many people as have been killed in the name of atheism in the past few decades.
It's time to abandon the mindlessly repeated mantra that religious belief has been the greatest source of human conflict and violence. Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history."
(D'Souza, D. (11/26/2006), "Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history", http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1121/p09s01-coop.html)
Can you spot the fallacies?
PS: The text between square brackets is added by me.
