[Hank Kerchief]

Religion is ... more than useful for a civilized society, though, it is a downright necessity.

This is the basic assumption and working principle of such "civilized" societies as those found in Iran and Saudi Arabia, for example. It works, too.

This is not to say there are no atheists who ... are true to their godless convictions. Today, we call them sociopaths and suicides.

How many atheists these days have you heard of flying planes into buildings killing thousands of people, or strapping explosives to their bodies and blowing themselves and as many other people as they can to smitherines.

Suicides, huh? You mean like the Jim Jones cult, or the Heaven's Gate cult.

Where's this guy been living. The most famous suicides and sociopaths, and the most common, have all been highly religious.

VadeRetro, steve-b; elfman2, thanks for posting some sanity and relief from this "Quakers meeting."

Hank

[VadeRetro]

If only more of them were like Quakers!

[The Iguana]

Good points, but - officially atheist regimes in the last century deliberately killed over 100 million people.

Irrationality and murderousness are not necessarily limited to the religious mindset.

[Phaedrus]

The most famous suicides and sociopaths, and the most common, have all been highly religious.

Right ... Stalin, for example.

[js1138]

"Quakers meeting."

Funny, I went to a Quaker college and never saw any evidence of irrational religiosity. Irrational politics, yes.

[AnalogReigns]

The most famous suicides and sociopaths, and the most common, have all been highly religious.

And what have you been smoking? Do the names Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Caucescu, et. als. mean anything to you?

Religion itself is not a good--as there are false and true religions...however the most bloodthirsty men in history have been atheists.

[Tench_Coxe]

" How many atheists these days have you heard of flying planes into buildings killing thousands of people, or strapping explosives to their bodies and blowing themselves and as many other people as they can to smitherines."

Well, I know of one group of atheists in the 20th century that lined people up at gunpoint, killed them, sent them to labor camps in no-man's land, starved them, and drained all hope of life. Eventually they collapsed under the hollowness of their philosophy.

I know of another group of atheists that killed the intellectuals, then killed more people for the glorious 'Great Leap Forward', and still practice vitual slavery on segments of the population.

Then there was another group of atheists to whom a tribute to their handiwork is still able to be viewed in Southeast Asia.

Knock it off. You're baiting people, and it is intellectually dishonest to equate all who subscribe to a religious faith the characteristics of a group of nutcases.

[MitchellC]

How many atheists these days have you heard of flying planes into buildings killing thousands of people, or strapping explosives to their bodies and blowing themselves and as many other people as they can to smitherines.

Because the atheist, if taking his belief to any kind of logical end, rarely gains the conviction to do such things.

But on the other hand, the atheist hasn't needed Jihad; he's had Communist International, half a century of Cold War, the current subjugation of 1.5 billion people in mainland China... After only a few recent centuries of being mixed with international politics, atheism has probably already matched or surpassed all of history's religious zealotry for deaths caused, persecution carried out and destruction levied. Go team!