Paul Jenkin
Well-known
No, let me enlighten you:
......and the Swastika is....?? Oh, that's right, it's an ideological / religious symbol, meant to protect all Nazi who fight under it. Okay, it was a perversion of an asian symbol, and Hitler used it to his own end but Hitler most definitely was not an atheist. Hitler was a very odd mix of religious and superstitious. He even consulted astrologists over the best time to attack - and canceled invasions because the omens weren't right. He wasn't what anyone could call a mainstream Christian, I will grant you, but not an atheist.
Atheists or, as some people call them, nontheists, do not have ANY religious or theist agenda; nor are they superstitious. They are not all tree-hugging pacifists by any means but they do not have a collective or a flag under which to gather and fight.
You are also conf(using) political regimes (Communists) and other sects / ethnic groups (Tamils) that choose to destroy others / their neighbours as an act of oppression or defence from being repressed. Removing religion by force (as the Communists tried to do in Russia and China) is just a political tool to control the masses. It is ridiculous to call it atheism. Incidentally, I've been to India and Sri Lanka and met and spoken with many Tamils. Tamil may not be a religion in itself - but the ethnic group is made up of Muslim, Hindu, Catholic, Protestant and Jehovas Witnesses. Not religious?
Check the following if you don't believe me:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Tamil_people#Religion
There is no church of atheist. Atheists don't meet up and decide to go to the local hall and give the Jehovas Witnesses a good hiding or invade Utah to see off the Mormons. We tend to just work our way through life individually and doing our best to avoid the fall out from the jingoist exceses of many of our political leaders who, for their own power-seeking ends, attach themselves to some ideology which often puts us, our families, friends and our countries into conflict (often fatal) with people we don't know - but who are led by some charismatic and power-crazed nutter.
I agree completely that, as nations, must defend ourselves but let's do it because it's the right thing to do and not as some crusade against a whole people or religion. I have many muslim friends and they are as disgusted at what happened in France last week as I am. What can they do about it? Denounce it and get on wth their peaceful lives in the same way as the rest of us try to.
If you really want to know about atheism, read "The God Delusion" by Professor Richard Dawkins. But read it with an open mind.
