God Is Not Great
And Neither Are Atheists
By Daniel Muniz

Militant atheists and belligerent secularists have always been rather confrontational with their belief that religion, namely Christianity, has poisoned the very fabric of society and that it will continue to contaminate the future of our civilization as along as people practice a religious faith. In fact, they seem to preach this Gospel with a missionary zeal that almost parallels that of a televangelist asking for donations.

And for ordinary people, there have been countless experiences in which friends, co-workers, and acquaintances have brought up the mantra that more wars have been fought over religion than for anything else. There are even quite a number of believers who subscribe to this false argument although it is not surprising since this idea has been repeated so many times by previous generations and pounded into our psyche.

But what is truly disturbing is the conveniently selective amnesia of too many secularists.
 

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For example, a number of militant atheists have an encyclopedic knowledge of all of the unsavory segments of history that are about the numerous religious conflicts from previous centuries. Some even take delight in explaining the barbaric cruelties inflicted upon people because of religious wars.

However, quite a few secularists expediently overlook the darkness that blanketed the last century.

In the past one hundred years, totalitarian regimes brutally sought to impose an atheistic belief system upon their populations with the intent of not only dismantling religion in their own countries but throughout entire the world. Do the names of Stalin, Hitler, Chairman Mao, and Pol Pot ring a bell?

Atheists are quick to point out that Hitler had the cooperation and support of certain clergymen although the reality is that the Fuehrer of the Third Reich respected no religion and manipulated churches for his own personal gain. In fact, members of his elitist SS troops were not even allowed to practice a religion.

But in addition to these despots, nationalism has often been considered by numerous historians to be the secular and state religion of a number of countries. In fact, historians often cite nationalism as the catalyst for many wars. So in other words, a lot of bitter conflicts have been fought over pride and prejudice instead of for dogma and doctrine.

Overall, there is a proclivity to naively proclaim that religion is the basis for warfare only because it is such a convenient but clumsy way to identify the motives of large groups of people. Consequently, our modern world is rife with such examples, such as Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland or Serbs and Muslims in Kosovo, etc. It is entirely irrelevant that most of the people involved in these hostilities, including their leadership, rarely if ever go to a church or a mosque. Regrettably, it is too easy just to blame religion for these problems.

However, rewind history a couple of centuries back and the same issues of nationalism keep popping up.

It is only blatant ignorance to claim otherwise. Unfortunately, it is this ignorance of history that allows that bogus mantra of unfairly claiming that religion is the cause for all of the world’s problems.

But the real question is why do so many atheists refuse to take an honest and sobering look at the atheists in history that spilled the blood of untold millions for the sake of no religion?

One popular book ‘God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything’ written by Christopher Hitchens is one such example. Hitchens doesn’t even bother to address these obvious objections. Instead, he blames religion for the atrocities committed by atheistic and secular regimes. He somehow has the gall to imply that it was the mere presence of religion that helped contaminate these secular leaders.

The irony is that militant atheists have absolutely no problem asking Christians to face the sins of their past and present but they refuse to acknowledge that atheistic totalitarians didn’t usher in the peaceful Utopia that adherents of the Enlightenment from the 18th century dreamed of. In fact, the very opposite has occurred especially against the people of such regimes who refused to give up their faith.

But the harsh reality is that it is people who routinely poison humanity instead of religion or the lack thereof. Regardless of what you believe in or don’t believe in, we are all still part of the human family so all of us are still subject to all of our human frailties and weaknesses.

Sadly, believers and non-believers alike have the same ability to inflict sadistic cruelties against their fellow man.

And perhaps it is time for non-believers to begin to finally examine such a premise instead of reveling in their own hypocrisy. Just like any human being, atheists are in no way exempt from committing acts of evil. As part of the human family, everyone is just as capable of being good as well as being bad.

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