[ExI] extropy-chat Digest, Vol 179, Issue 5

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 06/08/2018 15:41, Giulio Prisco wrote:
> I trust you'll concede that the regimes that perpetrated the
> atrocities described in the Wikipedia article are not abstract
> entities, but formed by persons like you and I. I trust you'll also
> concede that these PERSONS committed ATROCITIES in name of atheism. So
> please no more of this bullshit that atheists don't commit atrocities
> in name of their belief. They do, just like the theocratic
> fundamentalists they claim to oppose.

You trust wrongly. There's a different between an atheist doing 
something because they're power-hungry, greedy, afraid, etc., and doing 
something /because they're an atheist/. The atrocities fall into the 
former category, not the latter. Even if some did, that wouldn't 
invalidate my point. They'd have to be isolated cases, not the general 
rule, and I've still never heard of any.

These PERSONS didn't commit their atrocities /in the name of/ atheism. 
As I said, they committed them for other reasons, usually to do with 
gaining and holding on to power over other people.

"please no more of this bullshit that atheists don't commit atrocities 
in name of their belief"

Well, you're right that that specific sentence is bullshit, just as the 
statement that "people who don't take part in any sport do X in the name 
of their sport" is. Atheism is not a belief system. Surely you 
understand that?

-- 
Ben Zaiboc

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