George Orwell once wrote in one of his brilliant essays (and I paraphrase), “you cannot understand the nature of the modern world unless you understand the nature of nationalism”. The modern world to him was the mid 20th Century, but the principle holds true for all ages. Virtually all wars over the last two centuries (and most before that) have been fought for the Fatherland (or Motherland), either in defence of, or for the expansion thereof. Whether Hitler or Stalin were born again Christians or hard boiled atheists is totally irrelevant. The vast majority of combatants in all of these wars were theists, simply because they outnumbered atheist by a considerable margin. But that too is totally irrelevant, because they were not fighting for an ism, they were fighting for their Father/Mother Land, i.e. for Nationalism (some might like to use the more acceptable word Patriotism, but to me they are same thing).
To say that “atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history” is as stupid as it is wrong (and that is putting it politely). In all of these wars theists and atheists fought side by side for their given Nation. Nationalism is the driving force, and nationalism is the prerogative of neither group – some of the most rabid nationalists can be found in the fundamentalist wings of both Christian and Muslim religions, which is why they often fight amongst themselves. They can also be found among athiests. And while there have been wars fought purely for the defence or expansion of a religion, there has never been a war fought by atheist for similar objectives. In fact, there has never been a war fought for the principles of atheism at all.
AA, if you (or the Christian Science Monitor) want to attack Dawkins and his like, then please use something more sensible. For example, Dawkins said in one of his lectures (again paraphrased), “good people do good things and bad people do bad things, but to get good people to do bad things takes religion”. This is a deliberate half truth, said no doubt because of his disdain for religion, but it is quite obvious that political ideologies (Fascism, Nazism, Communism etc) have produced the same effects. So perhaps you might like to debate whether the real force behind the mass murders of history is the ideology of Religion (in all its forms) or the ideology of Nationalism (in all its forms). I won’t join such a debate, as to me they are all as evil as each other.
I would like to say that the reason the Watchtower will not side with Christendom to address this topic is because the premise is vacuous and absurd; the typical reaction of shallow theistic squirming. But I guess the real reason is because they wouldn’t side with Christendom over anything.
