Quote:
Originally Posted by Esaias
How many people have been murdered at the hands of atheistic and/or "secular" governments? 100 million? 200 million? In the last 150 years alone?
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Even if someone could arrive at a number of people killed within a religious war and compared with the number of people killed in a "non-religious" war, correlation does NOT mean causation. For example, the Bosnian war had a religious component to it (Christian regions vs. Muslim regions) but it was a territorial and ethnic conflict according to most.
Hitler was a baptized and confirmed Catholic (not practicing, obviously.) And lotsa German armor and most Nazi belt buckles featured the engraved motto, "Gott Mitt Uns." (God with us.) But no responsible historian calls WWII a religious war. And neither did WWII happen in the name of atheism, nor in the name of secularism.
Speaking of quasi-religious influence, a reported slogan for the 16th century Conquistadors was the "3 Gs": "God, Gold, and Glory!" One or all 3 of those were used to justify the genocide of millions of Mexican and Central American Indians. Was all that a "religious" war? Don't think so, but their religious worldview was obviously a component.
And, let's not conflate SECULARISM with Atheism. Our own Revolutionary War had a demonstrably "secular" result, if not also secular goal, considering that our Constitution purposefully avoids the mention of any god and INSTEAD specifies "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." Such seems the practical essence of secularism in many places; "Have your own god and do your own religion , but do not use the public's government to promote it or finance it."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Esaias
How many people have been murdered at the hands of atheistic and/or "secular" governments? 100 million? 200 million? In the last 150 years alone?
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Straw man.
