Atheists and evolutionists do not like to be compared to people like Adolf Hitler.
So are the theists. Hilter WAS a Christian! [source]
Just because someone shares a similar ideology with a tyrant in one area does not mean that he shares everything that tyrant did.
So why mention this in the first place, Gary?
Atheist Richard Dawkins “regards belief in a God who does not exist as the root of all evil.”
It is Christropher Hitchens who really makes the case in his book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
. The religious likes to claim moral high ground. Unfortunately, the reverse is true. In USA's prisons, atheists are under represented. In developed societies, atheism is directly linked to better society and lower crime rate. [Journal of Religion and Society] The conclusion is copied below [my emphasis]:
The United States’ deep social problems are all the more disturbing because the nation enjoys exceptional per capita wealth among the major western nations (Barro and McCleary; Kasman; PEW; UN Development Programme, 2000, 2004). Spending on health care is much higher as a portion of the GDP and per capita, by a factor of a third to two or more, than in any other developed democracy (UN Development Programme, 2000, 2004). The U.S. is therefore the least efficient western nation in terms of converting wealth into cultural and physical health. Understanding the reasons for this failure is urgent, and doing so requires considering the degree to which cause versus effect is responsible for the observed correlations between social conditions and religiosity versus secularism. It is therefore hoped that this initial look at a subject of pressing importance will inspire more extensive research on the subject. Pressing questions include the reasons, whether theistic or non-theistic, that the exceptionally wealthy U.S. is so inefficient that it is experiencing a much higher degree of societal distress than are less religious, less wealthy prosperous democracies. Conversely, how do the latter achieve superior societal health while having little in the way of the religious values or institutions? There is evidence that within the U.S. strong disparities in religious belief versus acceptance of evolution are correlated with similarly varying rates of societal dysfunction, the strongly theistic, anti-evolution south and mid-west having markedly worse homicide, mortality, STD, youth pregnancy, marital and related problems than the northeast where societal conditions, secularization, and acceptance of evolution approach European norms (Aral and Holmes; Beeghley, Doyle, 2002). It is the responsibility of the research community to address controversial issues and provide the information that the citizens of democracies need to chart their future courses.
It is important to be able to look at the evidence and make conclusion from the facts. It is NOT the same as wishful thinking and blind faith claim. We, human, progress by utilising the ability of separating facts from myths, wishful thinking from scientific claims, being moral without the god, being rational and being humble enough to know that we are just the lucky branch on the evolution tree. Nature will go on with or without human. The world was not created for us. This is humbling. Do you have the ability to understand that human are just part of a larger eco-system?
While religious like to claim that they are moral because of their god, the fact does not support that. While atheists do not make any special moral claim, atheists are behaving in better ways - as supported by numerous researches.
Religious leaders are either too stupid to see that god does not exist, or they are deliberately lying for selfish reasons. Next time when theists try to claim moral high ground, you know they are either too stupid or are lying.
ps a more recent paper by Gregory S. Paul updated the argument above. 30th November 2009
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