On Who's Killed the Most People in History

[lhynard]

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

Comments

[jeltzz]

I love the raw logic and sheer simplicity of data. I will definitely make a note of this post for future reference.

[lhynard]

I added a link to sources that will probably be more useful for you to bookmark than my quickly written post.

Contrariwise

[ext_124971]

If I liked killing people, I would contort the data to show that my chosen worldview leads to the most destruction and chaos.

[dogs_n_rodents]

How about the other "religious wars?" I'm curious to see if they total up to anything specific?

From Scott Olson

[dogs_n_rodents]

And don't forget wars that have been fought for "freedom of religion."

My response to people who go on and on about how "religious wars" have killed so many people is, "So what". Don't get me wrong, I despise war and believe it to be a horrendous blight on humanity (religious or not), but there are some things worth fightting for. Hopefully there always will be.

Re: From Scott Olson

[lhynard]

[T]here are some things worth fightting for. Hopefully there always will be.
Very true, but "our struggle is not against flesh and blood."

Re: From Scott Olson

[dogs_n_rodents]

That's true contextually with spiritual warfare (Eph 6:10-18), but not all warfare is primarily spiritual.

[anonymous]

Interesting argument. However there are several problems:
1. it is not true that all communists were/are atheist even if in an ideal communist society they would be.
2. the crusades and inquisition were killing that is directly related to christianity, however the deaths due to the communists is more closely related to a change in socio-economic policy rather that religion or lack thereof
3. it might be enlightening to examine the % of the world population that was killed in each of these events that you described since they are so far apart in human history and the human population grows exponentially with time.

cheers