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Comment by icebraining | Hacker News Reader

Why "even atheists"? Historically, atheists are not even close to the biggest aggressors against Christians. That would be other Christians, probably followed by Muslims (during the ascendancy of the Caliphates).

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Christians have been persecuted by polytheists, atheists, Muslims, and many others. Ancient Rome sent many Christians to the lions. The USSR had official state atheism, for example, and persecuted Christians. Certainly Christians have persecuted other Christians, but I think there's little evidence that Christians have been the dominant ones. Much more info is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Christians

On the other hand, clearly many atheists allow others to have different beliefs, including Christian beliefs, and to allow religious texts to be distributed (such as the Bible).

This seems to be much more about power and control over the Chinese people.

That page simply ignores the Christian-on-Christian violence. Where's the Thirty Years' War, "one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in human history"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years%27_War

Quote from that page about the Thirty Years War: "Initially a war between various Protestant and Catholic states in the fragmented Holy Roman Empire, it gradually developed into a more general conflict involving most of the great powers. These states employed relatively large mercenary armies, and the war became less about religion and more of a continuation of the France–Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence."

In particular, you have Catholic France against the Catholic Habsburgs, and the issues were not doctrinal. Not what you would expect if this was a war about religion. This was not a war about religion primarily, by the time most of the deaths occurred.

No major conflict is only about religion, including those listed in your link. They're always about power.

But to your specific point, France only entered the war almost twenty years after it started.

Late Christopher Hitchens had a brilliant answer to the atheistic USSR persecuting Christians: Stalin was building his own cult. As an ignostic or anti-theist (depending on when you ask me) I do not want to have anything in common with the cult-building monsters of past, present or future.

That's a transparent no-true-Scotsman. If it violates the argument just redefine the terms.

I assume it's because the Chinese government is officially atheist. (You could also add 20th century Communism to your list of significant persecutors -- not the same as the modern Chinese Communist party, but surely atheist.)

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