Last modified on December 15, 2022, at 22:16

Atheism and intolerance

Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins told Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, “you shriek like Hitler… You shriek and yell and rant like Hitler…you periodically rise to climaxes of shrieking rant, and that is just like Hitler.”[1]

In relation to atheism and intolerance, modern atheism has often had a significant amount of proponents who are intolerant.

Concerning atheism and open-mindedness, The Independent reported in an article entitled Atheists are less open-minded than religious people, study claims:

“ Religious people are more tolerant of different viewpoints than atheists, according to researchers at a Catholic university.

A study of 788 people in the UK, France and Spain concluded that atheists and agnostics think of themselves as more open-minded than those with faith, but are are actually less tolerant to differing opinions and ideas.

Religious believers "seem to better perceive and integrate diverging perspectives", according to psychology researchers at the private Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), Belgium's largest French-speaking university.

Filip Uzarevic, who co-wrote the paper, said his message was that "closed-mindedness is not necessarily found only among the religious".[2]

”

PsyPost indicates:

“ New research indicates that religious believers can be better at perceiving and integrating different perspectives than atheists in Western Europe.

“The main message of the study is that closed-mindedness is not necessarily found only among the religious,” the study’s corresponding author, Filip Uzarevic of the Catholic University of Louvain, told PsyPost.

The research was published April 27, 2017, in the peer-reviewed journal Personality and Individual Differences.

Atheists tended to show greater intolerance of contradiction, meaning when they were presented with two seemingly contradictory statements they rated one as very true and the other as very false. They also showed less propensity to be able to imagine arguments contrary to their own position and find them somewhat convincing.[3]

”

The abstract for the 2017 journal article Are atheists undogmatic? published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences states:

"Previous theory and evidence favor the idea that religious people tend to be dogmatic to some extent whereas non-religious people are undogmatic: the former firmly hold beliefs, some of which are implausible or even contrary to the real world evidence. We conducted a further critical investigation of this idea, distinguishing three aspects of rigidity: (1) self-reported dogmatism, defined as unjustified certainty vs. not standing for any beliefs, (2) intolerance of contradiction, measured through (low) endorsement of contradictory statements, and (3) low readiness to take a different from one's own perspective, measured through the myside bias technique. Non-believers, at least in Western countries where irreligion has become normative, should be lower on the first, but higher on the other two constructs. Data collected from three countries (UK, France, and Spain, total N = 788) and comparisons between Christians, atheists, and agnostics confirmed the expectations, with agnostics being overall similar to atheists."[4]

Also, according to the University of Cambridge, historically, the "most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the Marxist-Leninists to power."[5] Vitalij Lazarʹevič Ginzburg, a Soviet physicist, wrote that the "Bolshevik communists were not merely atheists but, according to Lenin's terminology, militant atheists."[6]

The Reign of Terror of the French Revolution established a state which was anti-Roman Catholicism/Christian in nature [7] (anti-clerical deism and anti-religious atheism and played a significant role in the French Revolution[8][9]), with the official ideology being the Cult of Reason; during this time thousands of believers were suppressed and executed by the guillotine.[10]

See also: Antitheism and antisocial behavior

Definition of atheism and a root of atheist intolerance

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines the word intolerance as:

“ 1: not willing to allow or accept something

2: not willing to allow some people to have equality, freedom, or other social rights”[11]

”

Merriam-Webster also provides “Word Origin and History for intolerance” as: “‘unwillingness to endure a differing opinion,’ 1765, from Latin intolerantia ‘impatience, unendurableness, insufferableness, insolence,’ from intolerantem (see intolerant). Especially of religious matters through mid-19c. Now-obsolete intolerancy was used in same sense from 1620s.” As a synonyms for intolerance, the term, “dogmatism” is included.[11]

Oxford Dictionaries offers concerning the word intolerance:[12] “1 Unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behaviour that differ from one’s own: ‘a struggle against religious intolerance’ ‘an intolerance of dissent’”

The dictionary reference website Dictionary.com defines “intolerance” as

“ “1. lack of tolerance; unwillingness or refusal to tolerate or respect opinions or beliefs contrary to one's own.

2. unwillingness or refusal to tolerate or respect persons of a different social group, especially members of a minority group.”

Other definitions are relevant to the medical field, etc.:

“3. incapacity or indisposition to bear or endure: ‘intolerance to heat.’

4. abnormal sensitivity or allergy to a food, drug, etc.”

5. an intolerant act”[13]

”

Atheism, as defined by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and other philosophy reference works, is the denial of the existence of God.[14] This means that, by definition, atheism not only is intolerant, but must be intolerant (See also: Definition of atheism and Definitions of atheist and agnostic and Attempts to dilute the definition of atheism)

A great irony of atheist intolerance is that atheists are unable to provide proof and evidence that atheism is true and have not rebutted the many compelling arguments for the existence of God (See: Arguments for the existence of God and Christian apologetics and Rebuttals to atheist arguments).

Atheism and intolerance as a virtue

See also: Atheism and dogmatism and Atheist indoctrination and Atheism and arrogance and Atheism and social skills and Atheism and narcissism

From this founding principle, the principle of intolerance as a virtue, atheists - from celebrity atheists to anonymous atheist websites and blog commentators - have turned expressing intolerance into a cottage industry that in pop-culture, politics and the internet.

The late ex-atheist C.S. Lewis wrote:

“ If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all these religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth. When I was an atheist I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view.”[15] ”

Examples of intolerance from Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins

See also: Richard Dawkins and anger and Abrasiveness of Richard Dawkins and Richard Dawkins quotes

The New Atheist Richard Dawkins has stated that “we are cousins of chimpanzees, somewhat more distant cousins of monkeys, more distant cousins still of aardvarks and manatees, yet more distant cousins of bananas and turnips.” He states that scientists who “deny” this view of “evolution” are irreputable for doing so. He points out that, “The evidence for evolution is at least as strong as the evidence for the Holocaust, even allowing for eye witnesses to the Holocaust. It is the plain truth” and correlates holocaust deniers with evolution deniers and stated, “More than 40 per cent of Americans deny that humans evolved from other animals [and from bananas and turnips]…I shall be using the name ‘historydeniers’ for those people who deny evolution…I shall from time to time refer to the history-deniers as the ‘40percenters.’”[16]

Richard Dawkins told Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, “you shriek like Hitler…You shriek and yell and rant like Hitler…you periodically rise to climaxes of shrieking rant, and that is just like Hitler.”[1]

Dawkins refers to evolutionists who, he claims, are creationist appeasers, “the Neville Chamberlain school of evolutionists.”[17] Chamberlain (1869-1940) was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from May 27, 1937 to May 10, 1940 and is infamous for declaring “peace in our time” after signing the Munich Pact with Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany which resulted in Hitler taking Czechoslovakia and invading Poland.

As for Hitler himself, Dawkins said, “What's to prevent us from saying Hitler wasn't right? I mean, that is a genuinely difficult question.”[18]

Regarding parental rights, Richard Dawkins states: “How much do we regard children as being the property of their parents? It's one thing to say people should be free to believe whatever they like, but should they be free to impose their beliefs on their children? Is there something to be said for society stepping in? What about bringing up children to believe manifest falsehoods?”[19]

He also said, “Catholic child? Flinch. Protestant child? Squirm. Muslim child? Shudder. Everybody's consciousness should be raised to this level…I could well imagine that this linguistically coded freedom to choose might lead children to choose no religion at all.”[20]

Larry Taunton “What is the objective of your anti-religious campaign?” in his article, he wrote Dawkins’ reply like this, “‘I think my ultimate goal would be to convert people away from particular religions toward a rationalist skepticism, tinged with … no, that’s too weak,’ he said, correcting himself, ‘… glorying in the universe and in life. Yes, I would like people to be converted away from religion to skepticism.’” [ellipses in original][18]

Examples of intolerance from Sam Harris

Sam Harris

Sam Harris said “If I could wave a magic wand and get rid of either rape or religion, Harris explains, I would not hesitate to get rid of religion.”[21]

Harris actually blames the Jews for the holocaust: “The gravity of Jewish suffering over the ages, culminating in the Holocaust, makes it almost impossible to entertain any suggestion that Jews might have brought their troubles upon themselves. This is, however, in a rather narrow sense, the truth.”[22]

Sam Harris agrees with Dawkins’ views on parental rights, “When we find reliable ways to make human beings more loving, less fearful, and genuinely enraptured by the fact of our appearance in the cosmos, we will have no need for divisive religious myths. Only then will the practice of raising our children to believe that they are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or Hindu be broadly recognized as the ludicrous obscenity that it is.”[23]

Harris also declared: “making religious certitude look stupid will be exploited, and we'll start laughing at people who believe…We'll laugh at them in a way that will be synonymous with excluding them from our halls of power.”[24]

In addition, Harris also said, “Some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them.”[25]

Miscellaneous examples of atheists and intolerance

American Atheists
Nate Phelps spoke at the 2009 American Atheists convention.[26]

American Atheists and intolerance

The American Atheists published on their website, “Atheists are NOT ‘secular humanists’, ‘freethinkers’, ‘rationalists’ or ‘ethical culturalists’…Often, people who are Atheists find it useful to masquerade behind such labels.”[27]

Evilbible.com and intolerance

Evilbible.com’s editor and website designer, Chris “Ali Baba” Thiefe, wrote: “The lack of public acceptance for a ‘lack of belief’ definition of ‘atheism"’is reflected in the fact that no reputable dictionary has a ‘lack of belief’ definition for either ‘atheism’ or ‘atheist’. However, this has not kept a few morons from incorrectly claiming that various dictionary definitions have a ‘lack of belief’ definition…I have posted some of the arguments these people have used, and I explained why why [sic] they are so damn stupid.”[28]

Other quotes from Evilbible.com: “The Holocaust was like a modern inquisition, killing all who did not accept Jesus”…[Hitler did not wage] “war due to being an Aryan supremacist”…“Nazism presents an embarrassment to Christianity and demonstrates the danger of their faith”…“Hitler wanted to form a society in which ALL people worshiped Jesus and considered any questioning of such to be heresy”…“Christianity has thus far been incapable of producing an unbiased, educated follower which speaks the truth”…[Hitler sought to] “exterminate the Jews for their sin against Christ”…“Hitler is admitting that his war against the Jews were so successful because of his strong Christian Spirituality”…“History is currently being distorted by the millions of Christians who lie to have us believe that the Holocaust was not a Christian deed”…“Through subterfuge and concealment, many of today’s Church leaders and faithful Christians have camouflaged the Christianity of Adolf Hitler.”[29]

Charlotte, whose articles are quoted by the Evilbible website: “This, from experience, is the best way to shoot down these idiots and bar them from getting away with their hypocrisy.”[30]

Other examples relating to atheism and intolerance

Dan Barker

Agnostic Gary Wolf related:

“ At dinner parties or over drinks, I ask people to declare themselves. ‘Who here is an atheist?’ I ask. Usually, the first response is silence, accompanied by glances all around in the hope that somebody else will speak first. Then, after a moment, somebody does, almost always a man, almost always with a defiant smile and a tone of enthusiasm. He says happily, ‘I am!’

But it is the next comment that is telling. Somebody turns to him and says: ‘You would be.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because you enjoy pissing people off.’ ‘Well, that's true.’

This type of conversation takes place not in central Ohio, where I was born, or in Utah, where I was a teenager, but on the West Coast, among technical and scientific people, possibly the social group that is least likely among all Americans to be religious.”[19]

”

Dan Barker said that Jesus was, “a moral monster.”[31]

Bill Maher said this on his cable TV show commenting on purity balls, where dad take their beloved daughters for a dance:

“ [It] is like a prom for a dad and his daughter, where dad gets in a tuxedo and the daughter gets in a gown, and they go to this ball, and he puts a ring on her finger and feeds her wedding cake, and she pledges to stay a virgin until she gets married. And then dad has sex with her in the car. [laughter] [applause]…[referring to t-shirt that he had made up] I'm not going to lie; these are the bull[expletive removed] ones we made up that are even funnier. [laughter] ‘World's Greatest [expletive removed] tease!’ [laughter] [applause]…‘I'm With Horny!’ [laughter] Oh, I love this one. [laughter]…‘My Father Went to Third Base and All I Got was this Lousy T-Shirt.’ [laughter] [applause] And my favorite.[laughter] he holds up t-shirt which reads, ‘My (picture of ‘pussy’ cat) Belongs to Daddy.’ [laughter] [groans] [applause]…If you're slipping a ring on your daughter's finger and eating wedding cake, trust me, you're plotting to [expletive removed] the babysitter. [laughter].”[32] ”
Christopher Hitchens

Daniel Dennett said, “We're just the beginning of a new wave of explicit attempts to shake peoples' faith.”[33]

Christopher Hitchens said, “I didn't expect, when I started off on my book tour, to be as lucky as I was and I, Jerry Falwell died my first week on the road, that was amazing.” Sam Harris was very pleased with this statement and responded, “Yes, that was amazing luck!”[33]

Christopher Hitchens about whether “all faith claims are in some sense equivalent”, “they're all equally rotten, false, dishonest, corrupt, humourless and dangerous.”[33]

An atheist who goes by the pseudonym “Neo” explained his choice of pseudonym this way, “Neo saved humanity from the Matrix [referring the Matrix movie franchise]. I hope to do no less (I like to dream big).”[34]

Some comments made to the ExChristian.Net site: “my passion” is “seeking to abolish legendary thinking from the face of the earth”…“ridicule works just fine for Me, thanks”…“You still cling to your sky-daddy, as a child clings to it's [sic] teddy bear”…“Holy mackerel!....all sorts of stupid, that Christian philosophy is!”[35]

Militant atheism

See also: Militant atheism

Joseph Stalin, the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953, patronised the League of Militant Atheists, whose chief aim, under the leadership of Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, was to propagate militant atheism and eradicate religion.[36][37]

Militant atheism is a term applied to atheism which is hostile towards religion.[38] Militant atheists have a desire to propagate the doctrine,[39][40] and differ from moderate atheists because they hold religion to be harmful.[39][41][42]

Militant atheism was an integral part of the materialism of Marxism-Leninism,[43][44] and significant in the French Revolution,[45] atheist states such as the Soviet Union,[46][47] and Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.[48] The term has also been applied to antireligious political thinkers.[49] Communist countries which currently practice militant atheism are North Korea and China (see: Atheism and communism and Militant atheism).

Recently the term militant atheist has been used to describe adherents of the New Atheism movement,[50] which is characterized by the belief that religion "should not simply be tolerated but should be countered, criticized and exposed."[51][52][53]

Militant atheism concepts

See also: Atheism and communism

British philosopher Julian Baggini postulates an atheistic active hostility to religion as militant and says hostility "requires more than just strong disagreement with religion – it requires something verging on hatred and is characterized by a desire to wipe out all forms of religious belief."[42] Militant atheists, Baggini continues, "tend to make one or both of two claims that moderate atheists do not. The first is that religion is demonstrably false or nonsense, and the second is that it is usually or always harmful."[42] According to Baggini, the "too-zealous" militant atheism found in the Soviet Union was characterized by thinking the best way to counter religion was "by oppression and making atheism the official state credo."[54]

As such, philosopher Kerry S. Walters contends that militant atheism differs from moderate atheism because it sees belief in God as pernicious.[41] In the same vein, militant atheism, according to theologian Karl Rahner, regards itself as a doctrine to be propagated for the happiness of mankind and combats every religion as a harmful aberration;[39] "militant" atheism differs from the philosophy of "theoretical" atheism, which he states, may be tolerant and deeply concerned.[39]

The theological roots of militant atheism can be found in thought of Friedrich Schleiermacher, Leo Strauss, Ludwig Feuerbach, as well as in Karl Marx's and Friedrich Engels's critique of religion.[55] Under régimes which espouse militant atheism, such as Albania under Enver Hoxha and Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, in which traditional religion was banned, when the wave of militant atheism passes, traditional religion may reappear with undiminished strength when conditions allow for the expression of grassroots identities.[56]

Militant atheism and mass murder

See also: Atheism and mass murder and Atheism statistics

"Расстрел безбожниками крестного хода в Астрахани": A Russian Orthodox Christian icon depicting Bolsheviks firing upon a church procession in Astrakhan, USSR in order to impose militant atheism on the Soviet population

It is estimated that in the past 100 years, governments under the banner of atheistic communism have caused the death of somewhere between 40,472,000 to 259,432,000 human lives.[57] Dr. R. J. Rummel, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, is the scholar who first coined the term democide (death by government). Dr. R. J. Rummel's mid estimate regarding the loss of life due to communism is that communism caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987.[58] See: Atheism and mass murder

Former atheist Vox Day notes concerning atheism and mass murder:

“ Apparently it was just an amazing coincidence that every Communist of historical note publicly declared his atheism … .there have been twenty-eight countries in world history that can be confirmed to have been ruled by regimes with avowed atheists at the helm … These twenty-eight historical regimes have been ruled by eighty-nine atheists, of whom more than half have engaged in democidal acts of the sort committed by Stalin and Mao …

The total body count for the ninety years between 1917 and 2007 is approximately 148 million dead at the bloody hands of fifty-two atheists, three times more than all the human beings killed by war, civil war, and individual crime in the entire twentieth century combined.

The historical record of collective atheism is thus 182,716 times worse on an annual basis than Christianity’s worst and most infamous misdeed, the Spanish Inquisition. It is not only Stalin and Mao who were so murderously inclined, they were merely the worst of the whole Hell-bound lot. For every Pol Pot whose infamous name is still spoken with horror today, there was a Mengistu, a Bierut, and a Choibalsan, godless men whose names are now forgotten everywhere but in the lands they once ruled with a red hand.

Is a 58 percent chance that an atheist leader will murder a noticeable percentage of the population over which he rules sufficient evidence that atheism does, in fact, provide a systematic influence to do bad things? If that is not deemed to be conclusive, how about the fact that the average atheist crime against humanity is 18.3 million percent worse than the very worst depredation committed by Christians, even though atheists have had less than one-twentieth the number of opportunities with which to commit them. If one considers the statistically significant size of the historical atheist set and contrasts it with the fact that not one in a thousand religious leaders have committed similarly large-scale atrocities, it is impossible to conclude otherwise, even if we do not yet understand exactly why this should be the case. Once might be an accident, even twice could be coincidence, but fifty-two incidents in ninety years reeks of causation![59]

”

See also:

Intolerance of militant atheism and militant Islam

See also: Atheism vs. Islam

David Silverman

The Christian Apologetic and Research Ministry wrote about the intolerance of militant atheism and militant Islam:

“ ...there is one thing that both the faith of atheism (yes, atheism is indeed a faith-based system) and Islam have in common: they aggressively do everything in their power to silence any voice that dares to challenge their ideology...

Sporting such a spirit, it is not surprising that hatetheists have no desire for any dialogue with others who do not share their opinions. A case in point is the first “Reason Rally,” which was held in Washington D.C. on March 24, 2012, with headliners like Richard Dawkins and other similar famous atheists being present.

When Tom Gilson, editor of the book True Reason, contacted David Silverman of American Atheists to inform them that Christians would be present at the Reason Rally and were interested in having a respectful dialogue with the atheist group with a formal debate between Dawkins and Christian apologist William Lane Craig also being proposed, he was told the following:

"Make no mistake – you are not welcomed guests at the rally. We are not going to DC for ‘dialogue’ with people who believe ridiculous things--we are going to have fun with other like-minded people. Those who proselytize or interfere with our legal and well-deserved enjoyment will be escorted to the 1st Amendment pen by security, which will be plentiful, where you can stand with the Westborough [sic] Baptists and shout yourselves hoarse.
Spreading out among the crowd is not a substitute for a permit. Indeed, I will be meeting with the Parks Commission on Thursday to discuss how to handle your infiltrative permitless counter-protest."

While Silverman and his group have no problem erecting billboards during times such as Christmas and Easter that mock Christianity and thus insert themselves into Christians’ holidays, it appears they have no desire to have Christians "intrude" into their events, thereby putting their hypocrisy on display.

So much for being ‘free thinkers.’[60]

”

Atheist indoctrination

Dennis Prager

See also: Atheist indoctrination and Suppression of alternatives to evolution

Jewish columnist Dennis Prager has stated that a causal factor of atheism is the "secular indoctrination of a generation."[61] Prager stated that "From elementary school through graduate school, only one way of looking at the world – the secular – is presented. The typical individual in the Western world receives as secular an indoctrination as the typical European received a religious one in the Middle Ages."[61] In 2013, an study found that academia was less likely to hire evangelical Christians due to discriminatory attitudes.[62]

Dinesh D'Souza has pointed out that atheists have focused considerable efforts on the public schools in order to indoctrinate young people into atheistic beliefs.[63]

Historically, as far as public education and other measures, although government sponsored atheistic indoctrination can have an effect on society, government attempts at atheistic indoctrination has not shown itself to be effective in eliminating theism in religious societies. For example, in Soviet Russia, despite great efforts as far as atheistic indoctrination by the Soviet government, the indoctrination efforts failed to eliminate religious belief in Russia (See also: Soviet atheism).[64][65]

Evolutionary indoctrination

See also: Evolutionary indoctrination

‎Since World War II a majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the evolutionary position which employs methodological naturalism have been atheists and agnostics (see also: Causes of evolutionary belief)[66] In 2007, "Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture...announced that over 700 scientists from around the world have now signed a statement expressing their skepticism about the contemporary theory of Darwinian evolution."[67]

Evolutionist/atheists commonly attempt to censor the plain evidence for creation and against evolution (see: Suppression of alternatives to evolution). In addition, they commonly attempt indoctrinate children and the public into Darwinism using fraudulent means (see: Atheism and deception and Evolution and Cases of Fraud, Hoaxes and Speculation).

Atheism and dogmatism/closed-mindeness

Humorlessness of secular left when it comes to ridicule of its ideology

See also: Atheism and humor

Although the secular left is known for ridiculing religion since at least the time of French Revolution, the secular left is known for its humorlessness when it comes to its own ideology (See also: Atheism and humor).

See also

Other related issues:

External links

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ammi, Ken (2011 or bef.) “Hitler’s Rabbi”. TrueFreethinker website. Retrieved on May 17, 2015.
  2. ↑ Atheists are less open-minded than religious people, study claims, The Independent, 2017
  3. ↑ Study finds the nonreligious can be more close-minded than the religious By ERIC W. DOLAN, PsyPost June 23, 2017
  4. ↑ Are atheists undogmatic?, Personality and Individual Differences, Filip Uzarevica, Vassilis Sarogloua, Magali Clobert, Volume 116, 1 October 2017, Pages 164-170
  5. ↑ Investigating atheism: Marxism. University of Cambridge (2008). Retrieved on July 17, 2014. “The most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the Marxist-Leninists to power. For the first time in history, atheism thus became the official ideology of a state.”
  6. ↑ Vitalij Lazarʹevič Ginzburg (2009). On Superconductivity and Superfluidity: A Scientific Autobiography. Springer Science+Business Media, 161. Retrieved on July 17, 2014. “The Bolshevik communists were not merely atheists but, according to Lenin's terminology, militant atheists.” 
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ War, Terror and Resistence
  9. ↑ Forging Freedom: The Life of Cerf Berr of M Delsheim by Margaret R. O'Leary, iUniverse (June 1, 2012), pages 1-2
  10. ↑ Multiple references:
    James Adair (2007). Christianity: The eBook. JBE Online Books, 461. Retrieved on July 18, 2014. “Although the Civil Constitution called for religious liberty, which was extended to Jews as well as Christians, many revolutionaries pushed for the establishment of a new state religion, either the Cult of Reason (atheists) or the Cult of the Supreme Being (Deists). Changes to the calendar eliminated references to Christian holidays, and even the ancient seven-day week, and a list of officially recognized saints included such famous thinkers such as Socrates, Jesus, Marcus Aurelius, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. A period of political persecution, often with religious overtones, broke out, known as the Reign of Terror. Thousands of people were executed by the guillotine, including many of the original leaders of the French Revolution.” 
    William Belsham (1801). Memoirs of the Reign of George III. to the Session of Parliament ending A.D. 1793, Volume 5. G.G. & J. Robinson, 105–6. Retrieved on July 18, 2014. “In allusion to the monstrous transactions of this portentous period, it has been eloquently and energetically observed, 'that the reign of atheism in France was avowed the reign of terror. In the full madness of their career, in the highest climax of their horrors, they shut up the temples of God, abolished His worship, and proclaimed death to be an eternal sleep:—in the very centre of Christendom, Revelation underwent a total eclipse, while atheism, performing on a darkened theatre its strange and fearful tragedy, confounded the first elements of society, blended every age, rank, and sex, indiscriminate proscription and massacre, and convulsed all Europe to its centre, that the imperishable memorial of these events might teach the last generations of mankind to consider religion as the pillar of society, the parent of social order, and the safe-guard of nations.'
    "It is wonderful that, amid the horrors of this dismal period, while 'the death dance of democratic revolution' was still in rapid movement, among the tears of affliction, and the cries of despair, 'the masque, the song, the theatric scene, the buffoon laughter, went on as regularly as in the gay hour of festive peace.'”     
    William Kilpatrick (2012). Christianity, Islam, and Atheism: The Struggle for the Soul of the West. Ignatius Press, 57. Retrieved on July 18, 2014. “Actually, it's helpful to think in terms of two Enlightenments: the Enlightenment that cut itself off from God. The former led to the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, the abolition of slavery, and the civil rights movement. The latter led to the French Revolution, the Reign of Terror, the suppression of church by state, and the godless philosophies of Marx and Nietzsche and their offspring—National Socialism and communism. More recently the abandonment of God has led to the regime of cultural relativism that regards rights as arbitrary constructions.
    "It's this second Enlightenment tradition that Cardinal Ratzinger referred to when he wrote, 'The radical detachment of the Enlightenment philosophy from its roots ultimately leads it to dispense with man.' Actually this transition happened not 'ultimately' but almost immediately. The first instance occurred when Enlightenment worship of abstract 'reason' and 'liberty' degenerated quickly into the mass murders committed during the antireligious Reign of Terror in France. 'Liberty, what crimes are committed in your name', said Madam Rolande as she faced the statue of Liberty in the Place de la Revolution movements before her death at the guillotine. She was one of the early victims of a succession of secular systems based on rootless notions of 'liberty', 'equality', and 'reason'.
    "As many historians have pointed out, the atheist regimes of modern times are guilty of far more crimes than any committed in the name of religion. Communist governments alone were guilty of more than one hundred million murders, most of them committed against their own people.”     
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Intolerance". Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved on February 26, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Intolerance" (2015). OxfordDictionaries.com. Retrieved on February 26, 2015
  13. ↑ "Intolerance" (2015). Dictionary.com unabridged, which also cites "Intolerance" (2010). The Etymology Dictionary (Douglas Harper). Retrieved on February 26, 2015
  14. ↑ Multiple references:
  15. ↑ C. S. Lewis (1960). Mere Christianity (New York: MacMillan), p. 29.
  16. ↑ Dawkins, Richard (August 24, 2009). "Extract from The Greatest Show on Earth: Creationists, now they're coming for your children". Times Online. Retrieved from LiveLeak.com on May 17, 2015.
  17. ↑ Dawkins, Richard (2006). The God Delusion (Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.), p. 66.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Dawkins, Richard (December 1, 2007). "Richard Dawkins: The atheist evangelist [interview by Larry Taunton]. ByFaith Online. Retrieved on May 19, 2015.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Wolf, Gary (November 2006). "The church of the non-believers". Wired magazine online, v. 14, no. 11. Retrieved on May 19, 2015.
  20. ↑ Dawkins, Richard (May 15, 2006). "Now here's a bright idea". Richard Dawkins Foundation. Retrieved from November 27, 2009 archive at Internet Archive on May 20, 2015.
  21. ↑ Blech, Jörg (October 26, 2006). "The new atheists: Researchers crusade against American fundamentalists". Spiegel online. Retrieved on May 20, 2015.
  22. ↑ Harris, Sam (2004). The End of Faith—Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (New York: W. W. Norton), p. 93.
  23. ↑ Harris, Sam (May 25, 2011). "Science must destroy religion". Huffington Post website. Retrieved on May 20, 2015
  24. ↑ Harris, Sam (April 3, 2006). "Sam Harris: The Truthdig interview [interview by Blair Golson]". Truthdig website. Retrieved on May 20, 2015.
  25. ↑ Harris, pp. 52-53.
  26. ↑ Haynes, Richard (April 24, 2009). "Nate Phelps answers Richard Dawkins". Brother Richard's Life without Faith blog. Patheos.com. Retrieved on May 20, 2015.
  27. ↑ The Webmaster (August 2004 or bef.). "Atheism—What it is, and what it isn't". American Atheists website. Retrieved from December 6, 2008 archive at Internet Archive on May 20, 2015.
  28. ↑ Thiefe, Chris “Ali Baba” (Oct. 2006 or bef.). "Definition of atheism [page 1]". Evil Bible.com. Retrieved on May 20, 2015.
  29. ↑ Ammi, Ken (August 2010 or bef.). "Adolf Hitler was a Christian! Was Adolf Hitler a Christian?, part 1". Adolf Hitler Was a Christian! Was Adolf Hitler a Christian? series. TrueFreethinker.com. Retrieved on May 20, 2015.
  30. ↑ Charlotte (July 2009 or bef.). "Christians are hypocrites". Evil Bible.com. Retrieved on May 20, 2015.
  31. ↑ Barker, Dan (1992). Losing Faith In Faith—From Preacher to Atheist (Madison, WI: Freedom from Religion Foundation), p. 213.
  32. ↑ Maher, Bill (March 23, 2007). "Episode #506". Real Time With Bill Maher. HBO.
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 The Four Horsemen: Discussions with Richard Dawkins:
  34. ↑ Ammi, Ken (Feburary 4, 2015). "Reply to an atheist on the Terminator and Matrix mythos". True Freethinker website.
  35. ↑ Ammi, Ken (July 2011 or bef.). "ExChristian.Net has been X’d, part 1". "ExChristian.Net has been X'd" series, TrueFreethinker.com. Retrieved on May 20, 2015.
  36. ↑ Michael Hesemann, Whitley Strieber (2000). The Fatima Secret. Random House Digital, Inc.. Retrieved on 9 October 2011. “Lenin's death in 1924 was followed by the rise of Joseph Stalin, "the man of steel," who founded the "Union of Militant Atheists," whose chief aim was to spread atheism and eradicate religion. In the following years it devastated hundreds of churches, destroyed old icons and relics, and persecuted the clergy with unimaginable brutality.” 
  37. ↑ Paul D. Steeves (1989). Keeping the faiths: religion and ideology in the Soviet Union. Holmes & Meier. Retrieved on 4 July 2013. “The League of Militant Atheists was formed in 1926 and by 1930 had recruited three million members. Five years later there were 50,000 local groups affiliated to the League and the nominal membership had risen to five million. Children from 8-14 years of age were enrolled in Groups of Godless Youth, and the League of Communist Youth (Komsomol) took a vigorous anti- religious line. Several antireligious museums were opened in former churches and a number of Chairs of Atheism were established in Soviet universities. Prizes were offered for the best 'Godless hymns' and for alternative versions of the Bible from which ... the leader of the League of Militant Atheists, Yemelian Yaroslavsky, said: "When a priest is deprived of his congregation, that does not mean that he stops being a priest. He changes into an itinerant priest. He travels around with his primitive tools in the villages, performs religious rites, reads prayers, baptizes children. Such wandering priests are at times more dangerous than those who carry on their work at a designated place of residence." The intensified persecution, which was a part of the general terror inflicted upon Soviet society by Stalin's policy, ...” 
  38. ↑ Multiple references:
    Julian Baggini (2009). Atheism. Sterling Publishing. Retrieved on 2011-06-28. “Militant Atheism: Atheism which is actively hostile to religion I would call militant. To be hostile in this sense requires more than just strong disagreement with religion—it requires something verging on hatred and is characterized by a desire to wipe out all forms of religious beliefs. Militant atheists tend to make one or both of two claims that moderate atheists do not. The first is that religion is demonstrably false or nonsense, and the second is that is is usually or always harmful.” 
    Karl Rahner (1975). Encyclopædia of Theology: A Concise Sacramentum Mundi. Continuum International Publishing Group. Retrieved on 2011-06-28. “ATHEISM A. IN PHILOSOPHY I. Concept and incidence. Philosophically speaking, atheism means denial of the existence of God or of any possibility of knowing God. In those who hold this theoretical atheism, it may be tolerant (and even deeply concerned), if it has no missionary aims; it is "militant" when it regards itself as a doctrine to be propagated for the happiness of mankind and combats every religion as a harmful aberration.” 
    Kerry S. Walters (2010). Atheism. Continuum International Publishing Group. Retrieved on 10 March 2011. “Both positive and negative atheism may be further subdivided into (i) militant and (ii) moderate varieties. Militant atheists, such as physicist Steven Weinberg, tend to think that God-belief is not only erroneous but pernicious. Moderate atheists agree that God-belief is unjustifiable, but see nothing inherently pernicious in it. What leads to excess, they argue, is intolerant dogmatism and extremism, and these are qualities of ideologies in general, religious or nonreligious.” 
    Phil Zuckerman (2009). Atheism and Secularity: Issues, Concepts, and Definitions. ABC-CLIO. Retrieved on 10 March 2011. “In contrast, militant atheism, as advocated by Lenin and the Russian Bolsheviks, treats religion as the dangerous opium and narcotic of the people, a wrong political ideology serving the interests of antirevolutionary forces; thus force may be necessary to control or eliminate religion.” 

    Yang, Fenggang (2004). "Between Secularist Ideology and Desecularizing Reality: The Birth and Growth of Religious Research in Communist China". Sociology of Religion 65 (2): 101–119. http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/content/65/2/101.full.pdf. "Scientific atheism is the theoretical basis for tolerating religion while carrying out atheist propaganda, whereas militant atheism leads to antireligious measures. In practice, almost as soon as it took power in 1949, the CCP followed the hard line of militant atheism. Within a decade, all religions were brought under the iron control of the Party: Folk religious practices considered feudalist superstitions were vigorously suppressed; cultic or heterodox sects regarded as reactionary organizations were resolutely banned; foreign missionaries, considered part of Western imperialism, were expelled; and major world religions, including Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism, were coerced into "patriotic" national associations under close supervision of the Party. Religious believers who dared to challenge these policies were mercilessly banished to labor camps, jails, or execution grounds.". 

    Yang, Fenggang (2006). "The Red, Black, and Gray Markets of Religion in China". The Sociological Quarterly 47 (1): 93–122. http://www.purdue.edu/crcs/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Yang3Markets.pdf. "In contrast, militant atheism, as advocated by Lenin and the Russian Bolsheviks, treats religion as a dangerous narcotic and a troubling political ideology that serves the interests of antirevolutionary forces. As such, it should be suppressed or eliminated by the revolutionary force. On the basis of scientific atheism, religious toleration was inscribed in CCP policy since its early days. By reason of militant atheism, however, atheist propaganda became ferocious, and the power of “proletarian dictatorship” was invoked to eradicate the reactionary ideology (Dai 2001)". 
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 39.2 39.3 Karl Rahner (28 December 2004). Encyclopædia of Theology: A Concise Sacramentum Mundi. Continuum International Publishing Group. Retrieved on 2011-06-28. “ATHEISM A. IN PHILOSOPHY I. Concept and incidence. Philosophically speaking, atheism means denial of the existence of God or of any (and not merely of a rational) possibility of knowing God (theoretical atheism). In those who hold this theoretical atheism, it may be tolerant (and even deeply concerned), if it has no missionary aims; it is "militant" when it regards itself as a doctrine to be propagated for the happiness of mankind and combats every religion as a harmful aberration.” 
  40. ↑ Charles Colson, Ellen Santilli Vaughn (2007). God and Government. Zondervan. Retrieved on 21 July 2011. “But Nietzsche's atheism was the most radical the world had yet seen. While the old atheism had acknowledged the need for religion, the new atheism was political activist, and jealous. One scholar observed that "atheism has become militant . . . inisisting it must be believed. Atheism has felt the need to impose its views, to forbid competing versions."” 
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 Kerry S. Walters (2010). Atheism. Continuum International Publishing Group. Retrieved on 10 March 2011. “Both positive and negative atheism may be further subdivided into (i) militant and (ii) moderate varieties. Militant atheists, such as physicist Steven Weinberg, tend to think that God-belief is not only erroneous but pernicious. Moderate atheists agree that God-belief is unjustifiable, but see nothing inherently pernicious in it. What leads to excess, they argue, is intolerant dogmatism and extremism, and these are qualities of ideologies in general, religious or nonreligious.” 
  42. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Baggini
  43. ↑ Harold Joseph Berman (1993). Faith and Order: The Reconciliati oyn of Law and Religion. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. Retrieved on 2011-07-09. “One fundamental element of that system was its propagation of a doctrine called Marxism-Leninism, and one fundamental element of that doctrine was militant atheism. Until only a little over three years ago, militant atheism was the official religion, one might say, of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party was the established church in what might be called an atheocratic state.” 
  44. ↑ J. D. Van der Vyver, John Witte (1996). Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Legal Perspectives. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. Retrieved on 2011-07-09. “For seventy years, from the Bolshevik Revolution to the closing years of the Gorbachev regime, militant atheism was the official religion, one might say, of the Soviet Union, and the Communist Party was, in effect, the established church. It was an avowed task of the Soviet state, led by the Communist Party, to root out from the minds and hearts of the Soviet state, all belief systems other than Marxism-Leninism.” 
  45. ↑ Alister E. McGrath. The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World. Random House. Retrieved on 2011-03-05. “So was the French Revolution fundamentally atheist? There is no doubt that such a view is to be found in much Christian and atheist literature on the movement. Cloots was at the forefront of the dechristianization movement that gathered around the militant atheist Jacques Hébert. He "debaptised" himself, setting aside his original name of Jean-Baptiste du Val-de-Grâce. For Cloots, religion was simply not to be tolerated.” 
  46. ↑ Gerhard Simon (1974). Church, State, and Opposition in the U.S.S.R.. University of California Press. Retrieved on 2011-07-09. “On the other hand the Communist Party has never made any secret of the fact, either before or after 1917, that it regards 'militant atheism' as an integral part of its ideology and will regard 'religion as by no means a private matter'. It therefore uses 'the means of ideological influence to educate people in the spirit of scientific materialism and to overcome religious prejudices..' Thus it is the goal of the C.P.S.U. and thereby also of the Soviet state, for which it is after all the 'guiding cell', gradually to liquidate the religious communities.” 
  47. ↑ Simon Richmond (2006). Russia & Belarus. BBC Worldwide. Retrieved on 2011-07-09. “Soviet 'militant atheism' led to the closure and destruction of nearly all the mosques and madrasahs (Muslim religious schools) in Russia, although some remained in the Central Asian states. Under Stalin there were mass deportations and liquidation of the Muslim elite.” 
  48. ↑ The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics). Cambridge University Press. Retrieved on 2011-03-05. “Seeking a complete annihilation of religion, places of worship were shut down; temples, churches, and mosques were destroyed; artifacts were smashed; sacred texts were burnt; and it was a criminal offence even to possess a religious artifact or sacred text. Atheism had long been the official doctrine of the Chinese Communist Party, but this new form of militant atheism made every effort to eradicate religion completely.” 
  49. ↑ Rodney Stark; Roger Finke (2000). Acts of Faith: explaining the human side of religion. University of California Press. Retrieved on 16 July 2011. “The militant atheism of the early social scientists was motivated partly by politics. As Jeffrey Hadden reminds us, the social sciences emerged as part of a new political "order that was at war with the old order" (1987, 590).” 
  50. ↑ Ian H. Hutchinson. Ian Hutchinson on the New Atheists. BioLogos Foundation. Retrieved on 29 September 2011. “Ian Hutchinson tells us in this video discussion that New Atheism -- a term used to describe recent intellectual attacks against religion -- is actually a misnomer. It is better, he says, to call the movement “Militant Atheism”. In fact, the arguments made by New Atheists are not new at all, but rather extensions of intellectual threads which have existed since the late 19th century. The only unique quality of this movement is the degree of criticism and edge with which its members write and speak about religion. According to Hutchinson, the books written by New Atheists in the past decade simply restate many of the same arguments which have emanated from atheist thinkers for decades. The militant edge of these arguments is what makes “New” Atheism unique and elevates it to a level of popularity within a subset of the population. It is because these Militant Atheists show no respect at all for religion, says Hutchinson, that they are receiving status as a new movement.”
  51. ↑ Simon Hooper. The rise of the 'New Atheists'. Cable News Network (CNN). Retrieved on 10 March 2011. “What the New Atheists share is a belief that religion should not simply be tolerated but should be countered, criticized and exposed by rational argument wherever its influence arises.”
  52. ↑ Amarnath Amarasingam. Religion and the New Atheism (Studies in Critical Social Sciences: Studies in Critical Research on Religion 1). Brill Academic Publishers. Retrieved on 10 March 2011. “For the new atheists, tolerance of intolerance (often presented in the guise of relativism of multiculturalism) is one of the greatest dangers in contemporary society.” 
  53. ↑ Stephen Prothero. God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World--and Why Their Differences Matter. HarperOne. Retrieved on 10 March 2011. “For these New Atheists and their acolytes, the problem is not religious fanaticism. The problem is religion itlself. So-called moderates only spread the "mind viruses" of religion by making them appear to be less authoritarian, misogynistic, and irrational than they actually are.” 
  54. ↑ Baggini 2009 p. 131
  55. ↑ Christopher Marsh. "The Theological Roots of Militant Atheism", Religion and the State in Russia and China: Suppression, Survival, and Revival. Continuum International Publishing Group. “Religious belief is quite distinct from a philosophical viewpoint, however, meaning that almost all previous studies have avoided serious consideration of the theological roots of militant atheism. While it is with Hegel that one must begin to understand Marxist philosophy, one must take a detour through the thought of Schleiermacher, Strauss, and Feuerback before coming to an understanding of Marx's and Engels's critique of religion.” 
  56. ↑ C. M. Hann (1993). Socialism: ideals, ideologies, and local practice. Psychology Press. “It may disappear from view during the apogee of Marxism-Leninism, when the old temples are likely to be sacred (though only Albania and Cambodia went so far as formally to ban traditional religion per se). When the wave of militant atheism passes and conditions permit the expression of grassroots identities once again, traditional religion may reappear with undiminished strength.” 
  57. ↑ Multiple references:
  58. ↑ Rummel, R. J. (November 1993). "How many did communist regimes murder?" University of Hawaii website; Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War.
  59. ↑ Atheism article - communism section - Vox Day quote
  60. ↑ What militant Atheism and Islam have in common by Robin Schumacher, edited by Matt Slick
  61. ↑ 61.0 61.1 How atheism is being sold in America
  62. ↑ Suspicions Confirmed: Academia Shutting Out Conservative Professors
  63. ↑ The atheist indoctrination project
  64. ↑ Forced Secularization in Soviet Russia: Why an Atheistic Monopoly Failed
  65. ↑ Hamblin & Peterson: Hamblin and Peterson: Anti-theists can't erase Christianity, By William Hamblin and Daniel Peterson, For the Deseret News Published: Sunday, Aug. 26 2012
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  67. ↑ http://www.discovery.org/a/2732