A tactic often used to discredit a person or a group is to try to associate that group with someone or some activity that is universally reviled. Comparing someone to Hitler is probably the most common attempt at this. This is so common it has a name “Godwin’s Law”. This law says that if a discussion on the Internet continues long enough the likelihood that someone will start making Hitler comparisons approaches 100%. For example, those opposed to abortion will compare Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) to Hitler because both seemed to espouse eugenics. This kind of guilt by association suffers when someone notes that George Washington (and many of the American forefathers) held slaves, Abraham Lincoln was racist (1) and so on.
A frequent attempt to assassinate the character of atheists is when someone asks “what is to stop you from killing and raping?” (10) I would hope that the questioner would realize that the millions of atheists in the U.S. are obviously not doing a lot of raping and killing. Even though the percentage of U.S. citizens claiming to be atheist is very small the atheist community is still under-represented in the prison population. (2)
But this will not thwart those who try to link atheism to what some think are the 3 most notable atheists of the 20th century: Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Pol Pot. This article is inspired by this article (3).
Let’s look at each of these in some detail. Hitler is the most obvious attempt at making an apparent connection. But German military; before, during, and after WWII; wore the inscription “Got Mit Uns” (God is with us). Hitler wrote that he thought he was doing God’s work. This quote is from Mein Kampf: “I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator”. He would repeat it in 1936 in a speech at the Reichstag and in that same year is quoted as saying “Man cannot exist without belief in God.” So how did Hitler become an atheist?
Stalin understood the need for a strong leader. “The people need a Tsar whom they can worship.” (from The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Montefiore, p. 158) The point is that there is a god here, Stalin himself.
In trying to determine the religiosity of Pol Pot it appears that he was not an atheist at all. The only evidence to the contrary appears to be a quote from Prince Norodom Sihanouk “Pol Pot does not believe in God but he thinks that heaven, destiny, wants him to guide Cambodia in the way he thinks it the best for Cambodia, that is to say, the worst. Pol Pot is mad, you know, like Hitler.”
So it is pretty clear that Hitler, Stalin, and Pot were not atheists. But if they were? What would that prove? Only that you can find bad people anywhere. Despite the low numbers of atheists in prison, the count is not zero.
Another point is that a dictator has the best chance to take over a country when the dictatorial infrastructure is already laid out. That’s why Stalin refers to the Tsar, it’s why Hitler could take over a country – the Weimar Republic was weak and only 15 years old when Hitler as named chancellor. Cambodia’s government was overturned by the Khmer Rouge in 1975 and Pol Pot would start “the killing fields” almost immediately.
Pol Pot was in a Buddhist seminary and later a Catholic school. Hitler went to a monastery school and often played the role of a priest (hmmm, me too). Interestingly, all 3 of these tyrants were educated in religious schools and at some point considered the priesthood as a career.
Not to confuse the issue but what about Mao Zedong. If you include killing caused by famine he killed more than Hitler or Stalin. (4) (5)
One last point, the god of the bible kills more than 1 million people. Mao Zedong and Pol Pot apparently never claimed to be atheists. (6)
So what at first looks like a significant number of tyrannical atheists; Hitler, Stalin, Pot, Mao; may, in fact, be a near empty group. But that’s not the point. None of these were animated by atheism to commit mass murder. The comedian Jim Jefferies says “no one’s head has ever been cut off in the name of atheism – no one has ever cut into human flesh and looked down into the camera and screamed ‘In the name of nothing!’” (8)
Many people were killed by religiously motivated people. Although the numbers killed by the Spanish Inquisition are less than 10,000, they “inspired” others who kill many more and claimed to do so in God’s name. Michael Sherlock says “I am quite certain that the numbers game would prove to be an unfruitful one for the desperate apologist.” In fact, getting accurate counts is likely to be impossible. If you are inclined to get such numbers, do not forget the thousands killed under the direction of Catholic priests sure and Miroslav Filipovic in Croatia (11) and Jozef Tiso in the Slovak Republic. (12) Please also consider Junipero Serra and the effect on indigenous people in California (13), St. Francis Xavier and the Inquisition in Goa (14), witch burnings in Germany (15).
Sam Harris writes “The problem with fascism and communism, however, is not that they are too critical of religion; the problem is that they are too much like religions. Such regimes are dogmatic to the core and generally give rise to personality cults that are indistinguishable from cults of religious hero worship. Auschwitz, the gulag and the killing fields were not examples of what happens when human beings reject religious dogma; they are examples of political, racial and nationalistic dogma run amok. There is no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too reasonable.” (7)
Zuckerman writes “In sum, with the exception of suicide, countries marked by high rates of organic atheism are among the most societally healthy on earth, while societies characterized by nonexistent rates of organic atheism are among the most unhealthy. Of course, none of the above correlations demonstrate that high levels of organic atheism cause societal health or that low levels of organic atheism cause societal ills. Rather, societal health seems to cause widespread atheism, and societal insecurity seems to cause widespread belief in God, as has been demonstrated by Norris and Inglehart (2004)”. (9)
If we must talk about killings as if it was only a statistic, consider this one. According to Barbara Walker’s book Belief and Nonbelief, the God of the Bible kills or orders the killing of 2 million people. Considering the size of the entire human population around 1 CE compared to the 20th century, God doesn’t look so good.
References(all retrieved March 29, 2019, or later)
- Manisha Sinha, writing a review of Fred Kaplan’s book Lincoln and the Abolitionists, says “ Kaplan places Lincoln not at the head of a great anti-slavery movement but as a lifelong proponent of a lily-white America.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/was-abraham-lincoln-an-incorrigible-racist/2017/07/14/8247b2a4-4245-11e7-adba-394ee67a7582_story.html?utm_term=.1b966aab5bdc
- Mona Chalabi considers the complexity involved in answering the question Are Prisoners Less Likely to Be Atheists. Included is a chart showing that atheists constitute 0.1% of the prison population but 0.7% of the general population – a factor of 7 if you take the small numbers as solid. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/are-prisoners-less-likely-to-be-atheists/ Elsewhere I have seen the atheist population in general to be 3%. The same company says the percentage of atheists might be as high as 26% and growing. Even more claim “None” as their religion. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/way-more-americans-may-be-atheists-than-we-thought/
- If this article is unconvincing then please try Michael Sherlock’s article at https://michaelsherlockauthor.wordpress.com/2014/10/21/the-atheist-atrocities-fallacy-hitler-stalin-pol-pot-in-memory-of-christopher-hitchens/
- https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/02/05/who-killed-more-hitler-stalin-or-mao/ This starts to get complicated. Do you count the people killed as a result of the war? 26 million Russians died in WWII but do you assign all of them to Hitler or Stalin? Perhaps 40 million died as part of the “Great Leap Forward” policies but was that really the intent of Mao? Does “intent” matter in this discussion?
- What about Lenin? For a more nuanced view of his attitude toward religion see https://philosophersforchange.org/2014/01/21/lenin-and-religion/
- http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Atheists-not-responsible-for-past-genocides_82594
- This quote is from a very interesting web page https://samharris.org/10-myths-and-10-truths-about-atheism/
- http://www.philosophicalatheism.com/jim-jefferies-fight-world-not-islam/
- There is a comprehensive critique of atheism on this Wikipedia. Obviously, I don’t agree with all of it. This particular quote was found on reference #47 of this webpage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_atheism
- One response from atheists (particularly Ricky Gervais and Penn Jillette) is to say “I already do as much raping and killing as I want. I just don’t want to do any.” My fear is that the atheist hears this and acknowledges only that this applies to the speaker and not all theists. My quotation is a paraphrase. See Penn’s quote on this page: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Penn_Jillette
- Filipovic was a Franciscan Friar. He was executed for his crimes in 1946. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_clergy_involvement_with_the_Ustaše#Role_of_the_Vatican
- Jozef Tiso was a Catholic priest. He was executed for his crimes in 1947. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jozef_Tiso
- Junipero Serra under consideration for sainthood https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/23/pope-francis-junipero-serra-sainthood-washington-california
- Francis Xavier said “If there were no Brahmins in the area, all Hindus would accept conversion to our faith” https://www.hindujagruti.org/hindu-issues/hatkatro-khaamb/francis-xavier
- You may recall the witticism told in the style of the answer first then the question: “Holy Roman Empire”; “Name 3 things the Holy Roman Empire was not”. https://qz.com/1183992/why-europe-was-overrun-by-witch-hunts-in-early-modern-history
- Christopher Hitchens on the harm done by religion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMRuCS7MCG8
