Religion
In reply to the discussion: It would be wrong to expect atheists or antitheists to answer for a murderer who used those labels. [View all]AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)In the Abrahamic faiths, there is an allegedly historical tract full of direct exhortations by god to his followers to exterminate, literally exterminate, not just other people, but their works, their wealth, their lands, their livestock, etc. Salt the earth, no stone upon stone, etc.
That history is part and parcel of the foundation of that faith, even if there are no active exhortations to violence in play at the moment for those followers of the Abrahamic faiths that have moved along to the new testament, or outside ancient tribal relationships in certain geographical areas of the middle east.
Where is a comparable part/parcel exhortation to violence for atheism?
We don't have a book. We simply answer a question (is there a god?) with the word 'no'. That's the entirety of atheism. There's no guiding hand. No revealed truth. No historical tracts that exhort anyone to kill anyone else on the basis of faith or non-faith.
There have certainly been mass murderers in history who were also (or professed to be) atheists, but their motive to murder was never explicitly 'Non-Faith'.
So there is no equivalency here. If he's guilty of those murders (all evidence points to this, but he has not yet been tried by a jury of his peers) there isn't a shred of anything in the topic of atheism that could possibly be pointed to as a justification of his motive (whether acceptable to society or not).
So, no, no level playing field here.
I think most motives to murder are ridiculous. People have murdered other people for a lot less than a parking space. Your incredulity at the 'parking lot narrative' belies your bias. I choose to wait and see what investigative efforts turn up. It may be that he was motivated by their faith, to murder them. But I have yet to see any reason WHY he was motivated to that conclusion. You know me, I'm an atheist through and through. Have been my entire life. I am capable of killing in self defense (Of myself or others), but that is it. Nothing else could motivate me. I actively chose the non-aggression principle very early in life. Which, might map interestingly to some sects of Christianity that profess non-violence/pacifism/non-aggression, except, I have no old testament ideas from which to transition over to the non-violent ideas of the new testament.