jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I never gave this much thought, but it seems that atheists are discriminated against around the world. According to the map, it looks like China is really hard on atheists - strange.

http://mic.com/articles/106156/there-s-one-group-almost-every-country-on-the-planet-discriminates-against

Spindrift62 Loc: Dorset, England. U.K.

I've always thought that religion (any sort) is and always has been a great method of controlling the population. Just look at world history, how many wars have been conducted under the banner of 'my religion is the only religion and you will conform to it or you will be killed'. Still going on today. Leave that government's 'accepted' religion and you are less controllable, so China's stance isn't that strange.

bgl Loc: Brooklyn,New York

It is strange Jerry, in view of the fact that more and more people in western countries at least, are not identifying themselves as religiously affiliated. Obviously, many (a majority?) have no idea what atheism is.

Buzz

LarJgrip Loc: The Fraser Valley

Yes strange and probably not true, me thinks Becca is making this up!

bgl Loc: Brooklyn,New York

I agree. I would go further in saying that organized religion is actually designed to exert political control. Even here in the States, where there is supposed to be separation of Church and State, religion intrudes into our laws, our politics, just about everywhere. And we are the "enlightened ones"! And no doubt there will be those who interpret this thread as being sacrilegious, anti-god, evil, etc. when that is not the case at all.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

That's an understatement. It also gives individuals the "right" to judge and control everyone else.

Imagine someone running for president who said he didn't believe in God? He wouldn't even be nominated.

dljen Loc: Central PA

Unfortunately, it's getting worse in our country. Many who were elected into public office feel that they should decide our country's laws with religion in mind. Religion doesn't belong in politics.

One day there will be an atheist president, but it will be awhile. People don't like change but look at Kennedy, he had to climb mountains to convince the people that he wasn't going to make everyone worship the pope.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Wasn't France's past president an atheist, living with a woman to whom he was not married?

dljen Loc: Central PA

Yes, looked it up, President Hollande. Before him, there was President Sarkozy and he was married 3 times.

I used to talk to a man from Paris during the Clinton years and he told me how the French thought it was ridiculous how our press was making a big deal over the Monica affair. :D

Sometimes our nation can be backward...

Texcaster Loc: Queensland

Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, a childless, unmarried atheist and former socialist moved her boyfriend into the " Lodge".

Religion and many other things just aren't a big deal in other countries.

magicray Loc: Tampa Bay, Florida

I believe we have had many presidents who were closet atheists. Politicians know the value and importance of putting up a good front. Bill Clinton comes to mind along with LBJ and possibly Obama.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

Actually...this is a canard that keeps getting repeated over and over...but it's patently false.

The percentage of "religiously motivated"wars is MINUSCULE compared to other reasons.


The truth is, non-religious motivations and naturalistic philosophies bear the blame for nearly all of humankind’s wars.

Lives lost during religious conflict pales in comparison to those experienced during the regimes who wanted nothing to do with the idea of God – something showcased in R. J. Rummel’s work Lethal Politics and Death by Government:

Non-Religious Dictator Lives Lost

Joseph Stalin - 42,672,000

Mao Zedong - 37,828,000

Adolf Hitler - 20,946,000

Chiang Kai-shek - 10,214,000

Vladimir Lenin - 4,017,000

Hideki Tojo - 3,990,000

Pol Pot - 2,397,0003

Rummel says: “Almost 170 million men, women and children have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed or worked to death; buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed or killed in any other of a myriad of ways governments have inflicted death on unarmed, helpless citizens and foreigners.

The dead could conceivably be nearly 360 million people. It is though our species has been devastated by a modern Black Plague. And indeed it has, but a plague of Power, not germs.”4

The historical evidence is quite clear: Religion is not the #1 cause of war.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

Hey! It's almost the end of 2014 and we agreed on something!

Now on to 2015... :)

C. Yoder Loc: S.W. Missouri

Good letter rpavich, i agree 100%. True Christians who live by their faith and follow their spiritually directed conscience arn't a threat to anything but evil and injustice. We need more politicians who have a moral conscience and arn't afraid to stand up for it.

ole sarg Loc: south florida

Number of deaths and causes of wars are two different things.

Notice the numbers of dead are a direct result of technology.

Most wars are fought over ideology or territory rather than religion.

But is ideology another form of religion. For instance there was a mythology behind nazism.

BTW Tojo had a part in the going to war but was not the primary instigator. In fact, he had retired during the war and the US military found him living a simple life in his house in Tokyo!