God's Ghost
The attempt by cultural warriors to prove who has committed the worst atrocities, religion or atheism, is unworthy and lowbrow. Religion has been around longer. Sure, atheists have been around since the beginning of the written word, but as far as the history of western civilization goes religion has been tied to government. There have always been state sponsored churches, cults or religions. Religion has just had more opportunity to pile up bodies.
The United States was the first attempt to create a wholly secular government. But, we still didn’t eliminate religion from the political process. That just ensured that we have no official state endorsed religion. Even at that we have a generalized civil Christianity that permeates our culture. The former Soviet Union and China have had dismal human rights records. Atheist governments aren’t necessarily more just. Given human nature and enough time we might see that secular governments pile up enough bodies to rival Islam and Christianity.
Frankly, bureaucracy in any form is something to be suspicious of. It’s just that those bureaucracies that claim divine authority frighten me more than those elected by the people. You can kill a human tyrant more easily than an invisible one who someone claims to exist. God has been dead since at least the 19th century and his ghost is still haunting us today.