They will completely shift the burden of proof and tell you that you cannot DISprove their unfounded opinion and not only that, but your opinion and morality is inadmissible because once there was a genocidal maniac who also happened to be an Atheist - Joseph Stalin.
The suggestion is that because Stalin promoted Atheism and non-belief as the state (lack of) religious stance, therefore all Atheism is somehow tied to the same evils as were evident in Stalinism.
Well, that argument is ridiculous and it's quite easy to debunk.
If you boil down the essence of their argument it goes...
Joseph Stalin = Atheist, Joseph Stalin = amoral, therfore Atheist = amoral
so now let's do some more of those,
Hitler = Moustache, Hitler = evil, therefore Moustache = Evil
and another...
Protestantism = Reformation, Reformation = Genocide, Protestanism = Genocide
and another...
Dave Berkowitz = Serial Killer, Dave Berkowitz = Christian, therfore Christian = Serial Killer
(there are loads of christian serial killers that this can be applied to - Bruce Lee, Dave Berkowitz, Berwid, The Yorkshire Rapier, Miller, Sampson Kanderayi, Watts, Jeffrey Dahmer. All quoted bible verses as motivation - Dahmer was from a creationist family).
But back to Stalin.
Stalin did not remove religions from his state because he was an atheist. He removed religion because he saw it as a roadblock to the ideal communist society. The actual existence of a god was not central to this rather the organised nature of religion and churches which promoted belief and worship, which he famously described as an opiate of the masses.
He used Atheism which already existed and had done for quite some time, as a tool to discredit religious institutions in the country. It was taught in schools and terror campaigns were waged against religion.
What is VERY important to note is that this terror was directed at ALL religions AND all institutions , religious or otherwise that stood in Stalin's way. Also nationalities and individuals he didn't want in his country - Poles, Germans, Koreans.
Atheism was a tool he used to reach his goal, not a irrevocable tenet of it.
In fact during WWII, Stalin allowed the Orthodox Church a revival as a Patriotic organisation, not because he believed in God all of a sudden, but probably because he saw it use as a tool to shape and control the population much as he had seen Atheism in earlier years. Once the organised church had been subjugated, the religion itself was allowed a resurgence.
All of this though is moot to the argument, because to be an Atheist is one thing and isn't a lot of different things.
It is the rejection of god claims without evidence.
It is NOT stalinism
It IS NOT socialism (another matter because this is not the common belief - socialism does not = communism and many conservative people in the west receive socialist benefits)
It IS NOT communism
There are many Atheists living happily in a western capitalist society, I'm one of them and I still pay my taxes willingly to provide socialist benefits for the less well off. There is no danger of me converting to Communism, there is no danger of me eliminating all my opposition and consolidating power.
Do Christian really want to get into keeping a scorecard of death caused by theism and atheism?
Really?
I'm happy to do it because they've lost before they begin.
What you should always bear in mind though is that theists will generally keep up their denial to accept your argument even in the face of abject defeat.
Paul Clarke 04.09.2013
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