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I think it's time to take a look at some facts on how atheists treat religious folk once they seize the levers of power. Unlike some, I won't be including, for example, Buddhists as atheists, although some categorize them as such, and than suggest that atheists are all the same. In other words, this article is not a comparison between "all religions", as if the defects of one can be automatically assigned to all others, but rather a simple examination of how the State governs in nations which are officially atheist.
The first nation, certainly in Europe, that proclaimed itself as being officially atheist was post-Revolutionary France, a policy which lasted for about 7 months, but what a 7 months it was! Most of us know it as the "Reign of Terror", which lasted just a little bit longer, and which was instigated and propagated by those most tolerant of advocates of logic and reason otherwise know as atheists. Atheists should take pride in how efficiently the leaders were able to butcher nobles and citizens alike while at the same time attempting to eradicate any vestiges of Christianity. One might take a moment to reflect on the difference between the rebellious North American Colonies who later formed a nation built on their Christian principles and the revolutionary French elements who descended into an orgy of blood letting that only came to an end when Robespierre himself was guillotined. Not bad for a first attempt by a group of atheists who proclaimed "Liberty Equality Fraternity ".
After that experience it took quite a while before anyone dared to experiment once again with declaring atheism as the official state "religion". Atheists need not despair, as all was not lost, and thanks to the Russian Revolution the world had yet another chance to see the tolerance exhibited by those who wished to kill God once and for all. Although the establishment of the Soviet State was to have much more far-reaching consequences, I would be remiss here if I failed to mention little Albania, which began to practice religious persecution in 1912, escalated its severity around 1920, and reached full flower after World War II, with the establishment of a Communist regime. Once again, many were tortured or killed, and blasphemy, defined by articulating any kind of religious belief, was punishable by law.
Somewhat surprising to me, I found that Mexico also had a brief taste of how tolerant an atheistic State can be. Suffice it to say that butchery, from both sides, was the result, although I am unable to find little on this particular time period in their history. Wikipedia is my primary source, and thus I hesitate to say much more than I already have.
It is perhaps the "free" Communist States which might provide the most notable of examples on how truly tolerant an atheist can be. Once again, natheists (new atheists) should take pride in the focused approach exhibited by their brethren in attempting to establish an entire nation no longer under the yoke of any kind of religious belief system. Hundreds of thousands died for no other reason than being a leader or a member of the Orthodox Church. The good news, of course, is that millions died for other reasons which caused them to be labeled as enemies of the State and thus the butchery was much more evenly divided thus proving the unbiased nature of the atheists charged with securing the State against its enemies. The mind becomes numb when considering that this Atheist Leader of an officially Atheist country presided over the deaths of millions of his own citizens. In his defense, one must realize that the life of one individual has little worth in comparison to the truly great needs of the rest of the citizenry.
Now I realize there are those who attempt to avoid the implications by either denying the correlation or by suggesting one compare the total number of deaths which they believe can be assigned to "religion" versus those assigned to atheism, but I find neither suggestion compelling. The first is a non-starter as we have both the leader and the state officially proclaiming themselves as atheist and against all forms of religious beliefs. In terms of the second suggestion, I find that accurate comparisons are not only difficult, but essentially meaningless in that the contention by natheists is that religion is the cause of such pograms, and thus the simple fact that these purges did take place in the Soviet Union proves that claim to be false.
By this time I would assume that only the most die-hard natheist needs more evidence, but, if only for them, I continue to provide the evidence. Virtually all Communist countries were officially atheist (I say virtually in case one might have slipped through my fingers.), and quite surprisingly it seems that their records, in terms of tolerance and protection of individual liberties, though not quite as bad as Stalin's in sheer numbers, are nothing to sneeze at. A great accounting can be found here, a site which I have no doubt will be vilified by the first atheist who decides to click on it, but the numbers are there for those who choose to avail themselves of the information.
So, let's review. Atheists suggest that if only we would submit to their leadership the world would be a much better place. It is those dastardly Christians who have messed things up from time immemorial, and isn't it time we lay waste to their self-righteous system of tyranny? Well. I'd have to say that the record of atheists just isn't that good and I didn't even go into "the rest of the story". I like my individual rights....how about you?
