ANSWERS: 70
  • Gangland killings, street violence - that's not done because of god - does that count?
    • Moongrim
      Actually all of that has been done in the name of a god.
  • No, they usually kill in the name of their God. How many Athiest wars have you heard of?
  • ouch!!! this question makes me .... think!!! i propose that there is no difference in the tendency to be violent between believers in allah, yhwy, or god / christ, from he who believes there is not a god. he who doesn't believe in a god is less likely than he who BELIEVES there is not a god.
  • thats just silly. Even if atheists have killed people they haven't done it in the name of atheism and they surely haven't ever been organized enough to do it as an "Atheist war" or "Atheist movement" as a group. We all know religion has that covered. You can't kill in the name of Atheism anyways because Atheism is not a belief system or a following...it is the lack of one.
  • nope! That's what's so funny about it. I mean us Atheists get such a bad name because we don't believe that there is a God who intervenes in our life and makes a choice to send us either to a fiery pit of hell or a heaven however we don't KILL you because you think your heaven is different from ours.
  • The Soviet Communists certainly did.
    • MrJosh
      Really? No, they killed and they happened to be atheists. Also, they attacked the church because it was a threat to their authority. They weren't killers because they were to atheistic, they were killers because they were too much like religion.
  • I can't imagine why, or even how. Believers and non-believers do good and bad things. The difference is that believers have one more thing to do things "in the name of."
  • No, but we sure have died for it.
  • No the religious idiots have that one covered.
  • People kill because they faith/ultimate truth about something.. Besides the religion, a wife 'believes' his husband cheats on her.. bang! A crime lord believes his partner in crime betray him... bang! A person believes is life is in danger (self-defense)... bang! The atheist.. is the inverse of that idea, they don't believe.. An atheist can make a crime but not in a name of Atheism... if someone do that someday.. this is plain stupid..
  • The few people that have weren't doing it because they were Atheist, they just happened to be atheist. But the religious people that cause much more bloodshed did so because of their religion and beliefs.
  • why do people think we are such bad people? im atheist and i dont kill people and i never will.especially in the name of atheism.thats just stupid. people act like we are devil worshipers when really we just dont believe in god or the devil. stuff like this pisses me off
  • Of course not. They may kill because they are sure they can get away from the criminal law and because they have no religious scruples against it, however.
  • NO atheists find no justifiable reason to murder humans. Atheist are not roman catholics?
  • if muslims become atheists like in albania, ironically they will still fight against kaffirs
  • Not that I know of...in fact Atheists are usually more peaceful and peace loving than most theists. Atheists seem to value life more - they realize that this one life is all there is - so they try to preserve it and make the best of it.
  • no. people kill in the name of religion or because of having a new religion thrust upon them that goes against their current religion but they dont actually kill in the name of atheism.
  • Yes, it's been happening since the atheist crusade to reclaim the Ark of the Shrugging Atlas from the evil Godly occupiers of the atheist holy land of Lower Manhattan's Financial District.
  • Never heard of any.
  • I'm treating this question with respect to war, not individual conflicts like self defense or robbery. Ultimately, conflicts such as war have NOTHING to do with religious ideology and EVERYTHING to do with greed and selfishness. People may coach their actions otherwise, but when the majority of religions on this planet center around such concepts as "love", I find it hard to believe that RELIGION has anything to do with it. Religion, you will find if you look closely, is merely a TOOL used to justify such actions in order to get the masses to respond to the will of the organizations led by those in power. Have Atheists fought in wars? Yep. And they will continue to do so. Have Atheists caused or led wars? I'm pretty d*mn sure they have, what with actions of some being so much opposed to their professed religious ideology. Have people organized such wars in the name of Atheism? No, because that doesn't rally people to their personal cause in their play for power. To do that, you have to get a large number of people really stirred up and emotionally committed to something they really believe in. This may be over States rights, as in the American Civil War, or over political ideologies like Communism in Korea or Vietnam, for example. But not Atheism, per se.
  • no....atheists have no one to kill for(in the name of) but themselves if they choose.... was Hitler an atheist? atheists are as human as anybody else.... that being said, MY God wants me to kill no one , not even 'IN HIS NAME'...EVER!
  • Great question. I'm certain that they do-- for they believe that they have no God to answer to for their actions. How sad a day when atheists realize that people do kill in the name of converting people to atheism (i.e., trying to force someone to denounce their God under the threat of death)! Then were will the atheists turn? They've given up on theism only to find that atheism doesn't provide them the presumed moral high ground of joining a group that has never killed anyone that they couldn't convert. What a tragedy! Atheists who tout religious wars as the reason that they are anti-religion and anti-God are copping out. Every socio-ethnic, political, or religious group in history has had members within it kill or enslave some other group. There is no purity among atheists to which they can claim moral superiority. If anything, the ONLY moral purity that anyone can claim is to be found in Christ Jesus-- but the atheist rejects Him. What a pity!
  • To be fair... Religion is has been around a lot longer than atheism. So the odds and opportunities are not exactly even. Atheism is still growing and gaining popularity. Who knows...Maybe one day there'll be atheist nations that will go to war with religious nations. So give atheism some time. There's certainly enough anger and aggression there.
  • I certainly do but I can't speak for the others in my circle of godless, homosexual communists. Of course not! Kill in the name of namelessness? Nah
  • Does it really matter why people kill?
  • Atheists are capable of doing anything, so it wouldn't surprise me at all, if they did that, too. +5
  • I would hardly think so,,,,why would we ??
  • I don’t know if its in the name of, but this seems like one of those times that the abortion debate would come up.
  • killing the name of nothing? lol
  • Never heard of it spicy! :-/ we tend to leave all the killing in the name of something to the religious among us! they always tend to have an axe to grind, usually swinging towards each other so us atheists usually are left in peace for the most part, Lol… Good question though!! ;-)
  • I don't think I've ever run across that Spicy. I don't think Atheists get all torn up over other people's beliefs...mostly I think they probably would appreciate just being left alone. :)
  • Atheism is not a religion--organized or otherwise--it's the lack thereof. Theism has never, no time in history, proved itself to be the underpinning for moral consciousness. As you might well know, some of the most heinous crime in the history of mankind were committed by religion. And even to this very days, there are many religious wars going on. Yet we never heard of an "Inquisition" or "Crusades" ever conducted by atheists. Certainly there are people who have committed crimes who happen to be non-believers; but we can't say that it was atheism what caused him to commit the crime. If anybody suggest that, then we need to ask what cause priests, who claim to be the representative of God here on earth, to mess with young boys's booty.
  • I've never really thought about that but I'm sure it's happened when religion has gotten out of control.
  • No, but I would point out that there isn't any prohibition against killing in atheism either.
  • I don't believe so, no - because atheism is not a belief system at all. It is just a word to describe someone who doesn't believe gods really exist. People have killed for ideals that do not specifically embrace a god (communism being the classic example) which is slightly different. It does, however, involve killing people who believe in a god simply because they believe in a god. Just as abhorrent as killing a non-believer because they don't believe - or a believer for believing in the 'wrong' god - or a believer for not believing in your own god the right way...
  • This is how I know I'm going straight to Hell. I honestly had a small giggle when I read your question (not in a mean or offensive way- it just made me think) I actually don't have an answer for that. I don't think it's possible for anyone to really be an "Atheist" because all people believe in something. Even if they don't claim to have a "God" to worship- what would they call the belief system that they DO have? (ex: politics, views on gas prices, food etc.) In the end opinions do become beliefs.... I don't know. +3
  • Yes. Not only kill but oppress.
  • atheism is a way of seeing things...realistic and based on knowledge,human minds,nature,etc...i am an atheist...and i assure you i am not going to kill anyone in my life,or an animal...if someone wants to kill in the name of atheism then i believe he is a stupid uneducated person who's trying to play smart and dangerous to friends(or he is mentally sick if he really wants to kill)
  • Consider a person who feels there's no consequence to action. Isn't that sort of the same thing? +5
  • Atheists are way behind the believers in the death toll.
  • No, but much more of the intolerant religious attacks on atheism, and I could see it happening in an isolated way.
  • Yes, communist regimes executed many people because they chose to practice religion openly.
  • No, religious wars are about killing in the name of your god. Since atheists don't have gods, they just sit around all day long and yell at eachother about different scientific theories. Who would kill in the name of atheism?
  • If they did, Fux News would be like a diaper about it.
  • Hitler was Lutheran...hardly a believer.
  • Atheism stands for nothing but what is expedient so when you kill for nothing but gain you kill in its name.
  • What would they kill for? Oh that's right nothing.
  • WTF for?! ;-)
  • There may have been a few moment of rage incidents, but they're punks compared to the other guys.
  • People kill in the name of PARKING spaces. Why should atheism be any different?
  • Specifically atheism? Generally, no. However, some of the most brutal regimes in our modern history have been atheist, namely the Soviet Union, Mao's China, and Kim's North Korea.
  • Probably; they kill in the name of everything else. Look at Son of Sam. But if they kill in the name of atheism, how is it atheism's fault? It's not like there's a code you have to follow. There's no atheist Bible that says to go out and smite undisbelievers.
  • Stalin killed or exiled leaders of the Russian Church and even razed their cheif cathedral in Moscow to build a monument to communism.
  • Khmer Rouge. Not like, "we're killing for atheism's sake", but they expressly atheistic and killed the religious.
  • No people can't kill in the name of athiesm because its not a system you can kill or die for.
  • Not in the name of atheism specifically, but people have killed in the name of political ideals that incorporate atheism (eg Communism).
  • Yes, they kill for atheism but since atheism doesn't have a name, they don't kill in the name of atheism.
  • Of course atheism is atheistic. Tillich is an interesting thinker who proposed that although the atheist is atheistic he is also still concerned with the ultimate. Tillich allowed for both a floating personal ultimate and a the real ultimate. The personal ultimate could be anything for which one would sacrifice all else. The real ultimate would be, for example "why are we here, life the universe and everything." In this way atheism could be also viewed as a rejection of things ultimate. This seems a like playing with words though. The nature of the personal ultimate is more important in my answer for this question. Simply, put though atheists may wage murderess holy war in the name of a-god; they still kill. In a Tillich way an atheist may still kill in the name of his personal ultimate. A businessman killing of competition would be an easy to understand example of this. The buisnessman could be atheist or otherwise; but the buisness is his personal ultimate. I agree this is a tangent from the implied morality of the question. It may also be difficult to kill in the name of atheism . To kill in the name of invokes an appeal to a higher morality. This higher morality could be viewed in a Tillich way as a sort of submission to a sort of god.
  • Nope, atheism is a lack of belief in God. So, why kill over something that does not exist.
  • I'VE NEVER HEARD OF ANY.
  • No, most buy 'ready-killed frozen' from the supermarket!
  • Let's see here. Maybe you have heard of groups of heathens killing off people who believed in God in history? Non believers kill believers at the drop of a hat. The Palo Mayombe religion think people who are Christians are animals.
  • No. Atheists kill, and in mass numbers. History shows us this. However, it wasn't done in the name of Atheism.
  • Nope , never heard of such incidences occuring because atheism isn't a violent or cult religion the only difference between us and other religions is our beliefs which is impious to god. We are typically not going around preaching the way of atheism and trying to convert people but when questioned on our beliefs we come out and speak our perspective on religion.
  • No... but yes people kill in the name of some or other god and have done for thousands of years
  • Here are some actual numbers so folks can pretend to know what they are talking about: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/11/06/opinion/06atrocities_timeline.html?ref=sunday
    • Jewels Vern
      The first thing you notice when you look at that site is that almost everything you ever hear on this subject is made up.
  • No, that wouldn't even make any sense.
  • Not directly. People have killed in the name of atheistic isms. Communism is a classic example. Atheists have been murderers too but I've not heard of someone killing purely in the name of atheism.
  • No but 99 percent of the wars are about religion.

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