That's a straw man and missing the point. Sure, not all harms committed by the religious are because of their religion.
But the assertion was that there has been much greater harm done by the religious _because of their religion_ than harm done by athiets _because of their atheism_.
History clearly supports that. It even stands up taking into account the different population sizes.
Not intended to be a straw man (and I even think whataboutism would be closer if you were going to try to dismiss it).
> But the assertion was that there has been much greater harm done by the religious _because of their religion_ than harm done by athiets _because of their atheism_.
How about:
"Much greater harm has been done by atheists in their fight against religions than by religious in their fight against atheists" ?
Or even: "Much greater harm has been done by atheists than by religious" ?
I'm purposedly keeping why out of the equation here. It might for the sake of the argument be because we Christians are dumber and not as able to commit atrocities, but the numbers are quite clear: atheists have killed more people than all religions together during the last 1000 years.
And, to be clear: It is not my point to prove that Christianity is right or Christians are better people. There are many atheists I respect a whole lot. And a lot of people claiming to be Christian that I don't respect as much.
My point is no one can collect all the bad stuff done by one side and all the great done by another and compare.
If you want be to be responsible for madmen "on my side" 500 years ago you should very much take responsibility for madmen "on your side" 50 years ago.
> "If the argument is that communism is just as bad as religions then sure I'll buy it."
To play the devil's advocate, I'll point out that religion has also inspired acts of charity, large and small, for millennia, a not insignificant number of the greatest works of art and philosophy in history, and provided a sense of community and fellowship for humanity. For all of the atrocities committed in its name, suggesting that nothing good came of religion is inarguably false. We'll see where communism/socialism and atheism stands in a few centuries but, to date, it's hard to say their track record is as good as religion if we're being intellectually honest.
