Quote:
Originally Posted by RobotElvis
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The League of Militant Atheists aided the Soviet government in killing clergy and committed believers.[48] The League also made it a priority to remove religious icons from the homes of believers.[49] Under the slogan, "the Storming of Heaven," the League of Militant Atheists pressed for "resolute action against religious peasants" leading to the mass arrest and exile of many believers, especially village priests. By 1940, "over 100 bishops, tens of thousands of Orthodox clergy, and thousands of monks and lay believers had been killed or had died in Soviet prisons and the Gulag.
The League purged its rightist members in 1932–1934. In addition, the League of Militant Atheists sometimes took a violent approach to those who would not accept the League's message. For example, "bishops, priests, and lay believers" were "arrested, shot, and sent to labour camps."[25]
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leagu...itant_Atheists |
You could go back and forth on the "this atheist did this, this religious person did that" debate for a long time and get nowhere.
There is nothing inherently good about atheism, but there is nothing inherently bad either. If you suspend logic to become religious, you are in danger of believing other myths also not founded on reason. You can, at your own discretion, run errands for your god that are good for society only if your particular religious worldview happens to be true.
To clarify, I've seen atheists who are uber-rational when it comes to religion, but then suspend logic to believe in the religion of self-correcting free markets. Or believe in the religion of the state (stupidly defend everything their political party does). So my argument is not for atheism, it is for rationality in general.