Not too long ago, just after I finished Dawkins’ The God Delusion, I spotted a review of the book by Mr. Asohan in The Star. While I do think some of the points are valid — truly, atheism has no monopoly over goodness just as religion has no claim over goodness — I simply have problem letting the following pass without a comment:
They’ll just refuse to look at how religion can be a force for good. They will also ignore the acts of famous atheists like Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong, and the atrocities committed throughout the years by revolutionaries and rebels fighting against religious and other types of institutions. [The dogmatic atheist. A. Asohan. The Star. December 30 2007]
Dear sir, you are committing an awful mistake.
They were atheists but they did not commit the atrocities in the name atheism. As an example, if a Christian murdered somebody, he may not necessarily kill in the name of Christianity; he may murdered somebody in the name of nationalism and thus, has nothing to do with Christianity. Or, another example, a man may kill a woman but that does not mean he killed the woman in the name of male chauvinism; it may do so in the name of religion. That are the cases for Stalin and Mao. It is communism, not atheism. This is unlike religious people and institutions — be them dogmatic Christian churches in the past, modern Islamist terrorists, Hindutva, or any other religious extremists — that killed others explicitly in the name of religion.
The difference cannot be overemphasized and the causal relationship has to be clearly identified. The cause has to be explicit and not made up because it is convenient to do so. What you have done sir is merely appealing to guilt by association.
