“Actually, it would be hard to beat Pol Pot’s Cambodia and present day North Korea.”
Fair point, as far as extent is concerned.
So perhaps there really is something about most religions that excludes the very most evil and dangerous ideologies. On the other hand, that hasn’t stopped people from engaging in protracted, bloody holy wars. Religion might act as a brake, but it’s not a very strong brake.
And I still don’t see why “atheism” and “religion” are the relevant terms, as if atheism were itself an ideology. Marxism, liberalism, fascism, platonism—and for that matter, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Animism, the Moonies, the Scientologists—differ in more important ways than the formal belief or nonbelief in a deity.
@Jacob Stein:
“Actually, it would be hard to beat Pol Pot’s Cambodia and present day North Korea.”
Fair point, as far as extent is concerned.
So perhaps there really is something about most religions that excludes the very most evil and dangerous ideologies. On the other hand, that hasn’t stopped people from engaging in protracted, bloody holy wars. Religion might act as a brake, but it’s not a very strong brake.
And I still don’t see why “atheism” and “religion” are the relevant terms, as if atheism were itself an ideology. Marxism, liberalism, fascism, platonism—and for that matter, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Animism, the Moonies, the Scientologists—differ in more important ways than the formal belief or nonbelief in a deity.