The quote that has been posted, “Atheism has no room for human rights,” is insensitve and false. In the face of the rivers of blood that have been spilled in the name of religion, for example, in the name of the Prince of Peace, I suggest that religious folk be a bit more self-critical and cautious when it comes to implicit condemnations of the the ethics of those who don’t think like them. I remind FAOL members that the very concept of Human Rights is an Enlightenment idea, and that many of its creators were atheists or deists.
[This message has been edited by Alex Argyros (edited 17 June 2005).]
It is a myth that religion has been responsible for most wars. Historically, nationalistic expansion has caused more “rivers of blood” than religion ever did! Since the middle of the 18th century no wars were religion driven. (Unless you regard Socialism in it’s extreme manifestations of Communism and National Socialism (NAZI)as religions.) The slaughters of the French Revolution were engineered by atheists. The American Civil War had nothing to do with religion. Likewise World Wars 1 and 2, and the Korean and Vietnamese wars, or the horrors of Cambodia and Rwanda and the socialization of the Russia and the Soviet Republics between the wars, or the socialization a China after WW2. More people were killed in this time period than lived on the earth prior to 1700! And none of these killings took place in the name of religion!
The statement that Religion is responsible for more wars and death than other historical movements and events is an unthinking slander by athiests and it is easily refuted by anyone with any knowledge of world history.