Enough with the lies about Atheists!

Hitler once said that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will come to accept it as truth without question. This appears to be the case with Pastor Mike, who for the umpteenth time has repeated in a recent blog that "atheists were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions". Oh, let me correct that, "atheist governments"!

This move was actually very predictable. When people lose the ability to parry and thrust in logical argument they exploit the lowest of lowball tactics, including slandering a whole group of people. Mike, obviously out of his depth in offering a substantive retort to me, has how played his ultimate "atheists as mass murderers" card - for which, incidentally - I have pulled him up a number of times before. But, since some may have missed it, let's look at why he's wrong.

First and foremost, when he invokes names like Stalin, Mao etc. he is implicitly (some would say explicitly) conflating atheists with communists. This makes it easier to put forward the specious claim that "atheists" or "atheist' governments" did it - when in fact, it was essentially megalomaniacs then ruling over an economic system. Even the least bright person knows that when a totalitarian (not necessarily commie) controls an entire economic system, he or she will resort to anything to retain control. Look no further than the Shah of Iran, the Duvaliers (Papa and Baby Doc) in Haiti, and Pinochet in Chile.

The point is:

1) While most communists are Atheists,

2) Most Atheists are NOT communists.

Let’s examine this further because one has the sense that Pastor Mike’s brain may not be able to wrap itself around the above statements.

In terms of statement (1) it is probably true that ninety- nine of those who profess communism are at least godless. In so far as “godless” is deemed synonymous with atheist, then yes- they’d be “atheists”.

In terms of statement (2) most surveys of the political leanings of Atheists (again Atheism is not the same as a political ideology!) place the distribution as follows: 55% Libertarian, 8% Republican, 12% Democrat, 18% Socialist, 2% communist, 5% unaffiliated with any political ideology or party. Thus again, MOST Atheists (98%) contrary to Pastor Mike’s take – are not communists.

The error made by those like Pastor Mike is arguing from the particular to the general. Because he or his ilk may have met one or more people who were communists – and also claimed to be Atheists- he generalized to the conclusion that “all atheists are communists”.

This is a common logical error, but one with which a decent preacher – who is invested in truth – ought to have an interest.

The error is well –exemplified by this illustration:

a) John shoots animals for the fun of it.
b) John is a man
c) Therefore MEN shoot animals for the fun of it.

Let us go on: What Pastor Mikey is really claiming in his diatribe is that Atheism was institutionalized in the assorted communist states, and since they killed millions, then Atheism killed millions. But – as we saw – this breaks down by arguing from the particular to the general.

It further breaks down because most of the communist dictatorships to which the good Pastor refers were manned by dictators who quashed all opposition. The mass murders were the product of the megalomania of the bloodthirsty nutwhacks at the helm. Whether Stalin, Mao whoever. They were not the product of godlessness per se.

To prove this – it is only necessary to note from Russian-Chinese history that both Stalin and Mao killed FELLOW communists! (Or as Pastor Mikey would phrase it, “fellow Atheists”). For example, Stalin noted that Leon Trotsky and his followers were most outspoken against him. He therefore ordered “Trotskyites” to be butchered remorselessly. Estimates from released former Societ archives show more than 44 million Trotskyite atheists were butchered, compared to perhaps 11 million Christians - mostly Russian Orthodox I note (whom the goodly Pastor Mike would dispatch to Hell for not being "saved on the Lord JC".)

Stalin could not afford to have his power or control challenged, so he ordered all these fellow communists ....errrr....atheists...killed. How does Pastor Mike explain this? He doesn’t. It's much more convenient to skirt over it, because it introduces a logical complication to his reckless argument. After all, if several times more atheists are butchered, then how can one legitimately claim that Stalin singled out Christians for mass murder (again, Christians in name only to Mike, since he only recognizes KJV-based, "saved" evangelicals as such!)

Now, let's take China’s Chairman Mao. In his agrarian reforms he detected resistance largely coming from one sector – the intellectuals. BUT these intellectuals were also atheists like Mao, not Christians. Mao had them herded by the millions into "re-education camps" where they were forced to work as slave labor – and those who refused or spoke out were killed. It is estimated Mao killed over ten million FELLOW atheists in his re-education camps. By contrast, it's estimated at most 500,000 Chinese Christians were eliminated. I don't know how well Mikey does in Math, but a 20 to 1 kill ratio sounds pretty formidable to me.

How does Mike explain this? He doesn’t. You see he reaches out and yowls about the "atheist killing millions” but omits the next fact –that most of the millions were ALSO atheists who simply didn’t agree with the dictators doing the killing! Thus, Stalin and Mao slaughtered fellow communists, and atheists, many times more than Christians - again, most of whom would be sent to Hell by Mikey.

The same dynamic played out in Cambodia with the Pol Pot regime. Following Mao;s lead, Pol Pot again separated out the intellectuals first, and persecuted them: teachers, writers, newspaper journalists, doctors, lawyers and others. Over 2 million ended up in graves. All COMMUNIST! All ATHEIST!

NOW, in the case of religion, torture, death and persecution were institutionalized as part and parcel of advancing its own memes, doctrines and so on. For example, the Spanish Inquisition - slaughtering hundreds of thousands - as well as the burning of women as witches.

Let's bear in mind that the Inquisition, for example, met with the blessings of actual popes (e.g. Innocent III, Benedict IX etc) - who gave it their seal of approbation and essentially determined that it was consonant with the doctrines of the Church itself. (The erstwhile rationale being to spare the offenders, heretics from the far worse fate of eternal torment!)

For example, the papal doctrine of Ad Extirpanda permitted the seizure of property before a “heretic” was turned over to the Inquisitors. If the unfortunate person broke under torture, it would be taken as a sign of being under the influence of Satan, and his property confiscated.

Thus, in the case of religion, torture, death and persecution were institutionalized as part and parcel of advancing its own memes, doctrines and so on. For example, the Spanish Inquisition - slaughtering hundreds of thousands - as well as the burning of women as witches. In the case of homosexuals- the general punishment was that they were suspended nude upside down – their legs shackled to the bows of trees and spread open – then sawed from the pudenda to the neck.

This is at wide variance to Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot et al, who:

a) predicated their pogroms & purges on no formalized atheistic "doctrine" per se, but their own will to power.

Thus, unlike the aforementioned the Popes of the Inquisition, they merely seized the power of the state machinery available - but invoked NO godless doctrine per se to rationalize it. (It was merely their own paranoia, lust for consolidating power at work combined with mega-bloodthirstiness, but no doctrinal benediction as was the case with the Inquisition).

b)Stamped out atheists and religious alike, if they were viewed a threat to the organized, communist totalitarian state.

In this regard, it makes much more sense to assert that Stalin's(or Mao’s) excesses and pogroms weren't a product of genuine atheism, than to assert that the Inquisition, witch burnings of the Middle Ages, Crusades etc. "weren't a product of genuine Christianity".In the end then, the deeds of despotic individuals like Stalin Mao etc do not besmirch Atheism, the same way that the deeds of the Church at large - enshrined in its institutional practices and dogmas- besmirch religion and religiosity in general.

But again, this type of response and behavior is what we have come to expect from this authoritarian pastor who can't be bothered to argue in more discriminatory and refined ways. It's more like Elmer Gantry meets the Joker - then the "duo" gets baptized in water, before being turned loose on an unsuspecting world.