If the argument is, “Who is right about the existence of God?” this a total red herring. If there is no God, this does not predict that people who believe such will be good people. If there is a God, this does not preclude people from slaughtering each other in his name, at least if that God is not friendly or places a high value on human agency.
If the issue is, “Is it better to have a religious or areligious society, when it comes to not having mass murder?” then there simply isn’t adequate evidence to decide either way. The sampling is decidedly non-random, particularly because many major religious massacres occurred when the population was smaller, people were somewhat more expensive to kill, and record keeping was sparse.
Arguing, “Communist Russia wasn’t religious, therefore, all atheistic governments will kill lots of people,” makes as much sense as saying, “The Papacy murdered lots of people during the inquisition, therefore any Christian government will murder lots of people.” The religious orientation of a government may have significant implications, but they are not consistent or highly predictive. The fact that Communism and various fascist governments eschewed religion so they could make people worship the state does not mean that any government that promotes atheism will do so.
So your argument is an elaborate way of beating a rather minor point. “God put morality inside us” already has to come with enough caveats as to render it meaningless.
If the argument is, “Who is right about the existence of God?” this a total red herring. If there is no God, this does not predict that people who believe such will be good people. If there is a God, this does not preclude people from slaughtering each other in his name, at least if that God is not friendly or places a high value on human agency.
If the issue is, “Is it better to have a religious or areligious society, when it comes to not having mass murder?” then there simply isn’t adequate evidence to decide either way. The sampling is decidedly non-random, particularly because many major religious massacres occurred when the population was smaller, people were somewhat more expensive to kill, and record keeping was sparse.
Arguing, “Communist Russia wasn’t religious, therefore, all atheistic governments will kill lots of people,” makes as much sense as saying, “The Papacy murdered lots of people during the inquisition, therefore any Christian government will murder lots of people.” The religious orientation of a government may have significant implications, but they are not consistent or highly predictive. The fact that Communism and various fascist governments eschewed religion so they could make people worship the state does not mean that any government that promotes atheism will do so.
So your argument is an elaborate way of beating a rather minor point. “God put morality inside us” already has to come with enough caveats as to render it meaningless.
If the point is “I think tribalism can be analyzed as a single point of failure for morality” then it all makes sense.