Religion
In reply to the discussion: It would be wrong to expect atheists or antitheists to answer for a murderer who used those labels. [View all]thucythucy
(8,212 posts)Well, there is, actually.
A central tenet of Marxism-Leninism is dialectical materialism, with atheism as a core principle. I would hope we can stipulate that Marxism-Leninism, and its off-shoot Stalinism, were pretty violent ideologies--in that their followers were directly responsible for the deaths of millions of people. These were folks--the perpetrators that is--who were quite explicitly and militantly atheist. So to say "there is no connection" at all I think stretches it. "Atheism has no such entanglements." Tell that to the victims of the Great Cultural Revolution.
"Christianity is predicated on murder."
Really? So Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, the Berrigan Brothers, the Rev. Jessie Jackson, all bought into a faith "predicated on murder."
That seems quite a stretch. Care to be more specific about that? What specifically did Dr. King espouse that was "predicated on murder?"