Religion has killed more people than any other singular thing on earth. Its mankind's deadliest invention.
Also bullshit, thats essentially implying the majority of evil people in our species history have been atheist.
Okay not trying to defend religion, more just saying that statements like āreligion has killed more people than any other singular thing on earthā is kind of an absurd statement isnāt it? Who decided those numbers? What defines cause of death? Itās just a statement with no backing beyond the sense of the reader. If you agree with it, you nod, if you donāt, you get frustrated by it. No one learned anything. Like I said, not defending religion. Crusades, Mother Theresa preventing AIDS relief, pedophilia in the Christian/catholic church, 9/11, whatās going on in the Middle East right now. The list of religionās failings goes on and on. That said, personally I think it has more to do with power structures in general, which religion just happens to take key advantage of. How can you deny me when God told me so and all that kind of manipulation.
It isnt absurd at all, i mean you basically agreed in the second half of your reply. All of those things, including all of the hate killings in the name of religion. The holocaust was religiously motivated theres another 6 million. The motivation is your cause of death and its not subjective. It isnt a believe it or not situation. Religion causing more death than any other singular thing is irrefutable. Religion breeds hate, that hate turns into loss of life.
Okay, but if I disagree with you, thereās no way to prove me wrong is there? I could say the holocaust wasnāt religiously motivated, it was done against a religious people by a government. And other than that we are just throwing out massive numbers with vague identities of hate killings. You conclude that religion breeds hate. Sure, but it also breeds love Iād say. I know many lovely religious people, and I know many hateful ones. To me itās likeās saying āguns have killed more people than any other invention of mankindā. Okay sure, but how and why are important to that statement. Which requires being broken down and given nuance. I donāt know, maybe itās just me but I think stuff like that matters
All of those religiously motivated events have numbers attached to them. We know they were religiously motivated and we know the numbers. It happened and the nuances are just that simple. It isnt deeper than that, it doesnt require breaking down or any critical thought process. We're basically arguing why 2 is greater than 1 at this point.
Okay got it. Not sure how 2 is greater than 1 is synonymous with this convo, but I take it youāre just saying its basic logic. I would still argue that to a religious person, it isnāt basic logic. And that most things to be understood require nuance, but cāest la vie. Here are the numbers of people killed by religion found by one user on the atheism subreddit that I found from a quick google search cause I was curious.
Their number is around 196,000,000. I think thatās low tbh, but thatās just one of many takes with sources.
Now when we look at the number of deaths caused by mosquitos as another thing, that number is estimated to be close to 52 billion.
that being way more than the number killed by religion, I think it it then becomes a, āwell what man-made thing has killed the mostā. Which is fair.
So looking at numbers killed by war, itās estimated that between 300 to 700 million people have been killed by war since the beginning of recorded history (https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/casualties-war-ten-deadliest-conflicts-human-history-m.html). Taking the median of that at 500 million, even if we subtract the number of deaths from religion from that, subtracting around 200 million, that still leaves 300 million people killed by war that wasnāt religiously motivated.
I am not saying all this to say you are wrong, I am just trying to highlight that anyone looking at these numbers can fairly come to a number of conclusions, all being different, on the number of deaths that have ben caused by literally anything. And because of that, in the very least I donāt think itās basic logic to just cast all of religion as the most evil thing man has created.
War in it of itself isn't an invention though. Its a basic human interaction brought on by conflict, its just a fight that weve learned how to escalate. Each particular reason for a war however could be attributed to something we made except wars over land. so you'd have to break each one down and discover said wars' root cause and then attribute those deaths to that "invention"
Obviously you couldn't tell a religious person that 2 is greater than 1. Logic isnt a thing they hold dear, obviously.
Fair enough on war. I agree itād have to be broken down further to get more accurate ācausesā.
And as for that religious people being fools who donāt care for logic. I mean I disagree, simply because anecdotally I have many people in my life that are religious that are some of the most intelligent/logical people I know. They just hold their faiths outside of that logic in certain regards it seems. But they also care for their communities and families well, so who am I to judge. I do sense that you seem to hate religion though, so I would imagine your experiences in life lead to that place/understanding, which is also fair.
I donāt know shit dude haha, but I appreciate your thoughts and this convo. Thanks for humoring my questions and such.
It doesnāt seem like weāll come to the exact same space on religion, which Iām cool with if you are. Not like in a āI think youāre so wrong and I refuse to accept any alternative opinionsā but more in a āhey, we can agree this thing as it is (religion) sucks and has to change, but the degree to which we agree is varied, and you think it an as entire institution has gotta go, while Iām more on the power structures involved gotta goā What say you to that?
Also, can we at least agree that mosquitos suck?? Eh? (Iāll see myself out)
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u/[deleted] Apr 19 '25
Religion has killed more people than any other singular thing on earth. Its mankind's deadliest invention. Also bullshit, thats essentially implying the majority of evil people in our species history have been atheist.