On Who's Killed the Most People in History
This morning, an agnostic coworker of mine and I were walking and discussing religion. During this, he suggested the usual argument I have heard from anti-religion folk about how “Religions have been the cause of countless deaths.” As almost always happens, his example was the Crusades.
Now, I had heard that in fact atheists killed far more people throughout history than religious people. But, as I despise urban legends, regardless of the source, I told him I'd look into the facts.
Well, here is one where the Christian apologists are right about the facts and the atheists wrong.
High estimates of those killed in the Crusades: ~200,000
High estimates of those killed in the Inquisition: ~300,000
Low estimates of those killed by Communist USSR: ~3,000,000
Low estimates of those killed by Communist China: ~30,000,000
Low estimates of those killed by Communist Cambodia: ~1,000,000
Now these are estimates, of course, but to be as “fair” as possible, I picked the higher estimates for the Christian killings and the lower ones for the Communist ones.
Even so, the number killed by Communists in the USSR alone is still six times more than the Christian killings combined!
Of course, if you add in other religious massacres besides those caused by professing Christians, the number will go up. (For example, the partly religiously-motivated Pakistan-Bangladesh War killed 3 million at the highest estimate.) But the number also goes way, way up when you add Communist China and Cambodia - and N. Korea and Vietnam.
And remember that I am using the low estimates for the Communist killings.
Interestingly, the atheist websites I visited to check facts did not deny these statistics; instead, they argued that these deaths were not caused by atheism but rather by evil people who happened to be atheists.
This is a valid enough argument; Communism does not equal atheism.
Fine, but if that is true, then what the heck business do you have using the argument that religions kill people? We could just as easily argue that the Crusades were not caused by Christianity but rather by evil people who just happened to call themselves Christians.
Edit: I've been feeling bad about not listing sources. Here is an amazing site with all the sources you could ever want for the 20th century death tolls:
http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm
Edit: To be fair, the source I just listed estimates Crusade deaths at 1.5 million; however, his lowest estimate for Stalin is 20 million!
Now, I had heard that in fact atheists killed far more people throughout history than religious people. But, as I despise urban legends, regardless of the source, I told him I'd look into the facts.
Well, here is one where the Christian apologists are right about the facts and the atheists wrong.
High estimates of those killed in the Crusades: ~200,000
High estimates of those killed in the Inquisition: ~300,000
Low estimates of those killed by Communist USSR: ~3,000,000
Low estimates of those killed by Communist China: ~30,000,000
Low estimates of those killed by Communist Cambodia: ~1,000,000
Now these are estimates, of course, but to be as “fair” as possible, I picked the higher estimates for the Christian killings and the lower ones for the Communist ones.
Even so, the number killed by Communists in the USSR alone is still six times more than the Christian killings combined!
Of course, if you add in other religious massacres besides those caused by professing Christians, the number will go up. (For example, the partly religiously-motivated Pakistan-Bangladesh War killed 3 million at the highest estimate.) But the number also goes way, way up when you add Communist China and Cambodia - and N. Korea and Vietnam.
And remember that I am using the low estimates for the Communist killings.
Interestingly, the atheist websites I visited to check facts did not deny these statistics; instead, they argued that these deaths were not caused by atheism but rather by evil people who happened to be atheists.
This is a valid enough argument; Communism does not equal atheism.
Fine, but if that is true, then what the heck business do you have using the argument that religions kill people? We could just as easily argue that the Crusades were not caused by Christianity but rather by evil people who just happened to call themselves Christians.
Edit: I've been feeling bad about not listing sources. Here is an amazing site with all the sources you could ever want for the 20th century death tolls:
http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm
Edit: To be fair, the source I just listed estimates Crusade deaths at 1.5 million; however, his lowest estimate for Stalin is 20 million!