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Trevor Blake: The Reign of Terror [LINK-ZUM]

Wikipedia: "On 14 July [1789], the insurgents set their eyes on the large weapons and ammunition cache inside the Bastille fortress, which also served as a symbol of tyranny by the monarchy. After several hours of combat, the prison fell that afternoon." So began the French Revolution, which included The Reign of Terror.

Wikipedia: "The victims of the Reign of Terror totaled approximately 40,000. Among people who were condemned by the revolutionary tribunals, about [...] 6 percent [were] clergy [...] the clergy of the Roman Catholic church suffered proportionately the greatest loss. Another anti-clerical uprising was made possible by the installment of the Revolutionary Calendar on 24 October. Against Robespierre's concepts of Deism and Virtue, Hebert's (and Chaumette's) atheist movement initiated a religious campaign in order to dechristianize society. The program of dechristianisation waged against Catholicism, and eventually against all forms of Christianity, included the deportation of clergy and the condemnation of many of them to death, the closing of churches, the institution of revolutionary and civic cults, the large scale destruction of religious monuments, the outlawing of public and private worship and religious education, forced marriages of the clergy and forced abjurement of their priesthood. The enactment of a law on 21 October 1793 made all suspected priests and all persons who harbored them liable to death on sight."

Critics of atheism will often claim Hitler was an atheist and thus atheism is wicked. Hitler was a Christian [1] [2] and so it is not atheism that must answer for what he did. Sometimes they will claim Stalin was an atheist and thus atheism is wicked. Stalin was an atheist but he committed his wickedness for socialism, not atheism. Strangely, I have never read a critic of atheism claim that the Reign of Terror was an atheist occurrence. It's true, and proof that atheism be used to wicked ends. What can be done to lessen the chance of that happening?

Labels: atheist, christianity, socialism

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