Atheism and Injustice
The Pope said today that Atheism had led to some of the “greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice” ever known. If you read my Religious Rhetoric article earlier this year you might suspect I agree with him. I don’t. The same flaws inherent in that argument are equally valid for it’s converse. As bad as communism was under Lenin, Stalin, and Mao, it just doesn’t follow that atheism is to blame for the atrocities committed under their regimes. Evil men in positions of power were responsible for such cruelty and injustice, not a particular religious (or a-religious) ideology.
An interesting fact along these lines:
Do you know what community has the lowest incidence of Atheism in the United States?
Our prison system.
If atheism is the cause of “the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice” wouldn’t you expect the prison system to show one of the “highest” rates of atheism?