1. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc. were atheists, and they were terrible! Answer that!

Comment #81562 by delusionalProphet on October 24, 2007 at 10:55 pm

"Of course this was probably because they stood as alternatives to their authoririy rather than thesis vs atheist."

To my mind, that's the source of their atheism. Marx may have been sincere in his belief that it was the opiate of the masses, but men like Mao and Stalin (and Lenin) would have seen it as a threat to their absolute power. They were atheists for the same reason Henry VIII was an Anglican, because he didn't want to share power.

Insistence on dogma, persecution of "heretics" to their belief system, subversion of science and reason to the cause, perversion of truth for a greater ideal... Does this sound like religion or reason?

That's why its a bullshit argument.