Religion and Wars

We have seen over the past few centuries what atheistic governments look like with regard to human rights and democracy, and it's not good. While atheists reserve the right to criticize religious wars there are ultimately more people killed historically by atheistic governments than Christian ones.

Wars Categorized by Religion

Protestantism Catholicism Islamic Eastern Atheism
5-50 million, Colonization of the Americas 5-50 million, Colonization of the Americas 60-80 million, Muslim Conquest of the Indian Subcontinent 38 million, Second Sino-Japanese War 160-200 million women, Asian Gendercide
20-30 million, Taiping Rebellion 5-22 million, Congo Free State 17 million, Timur Conquests 30 million, Mongol Conquests 40-71 million, World War II
1.5-5.8 million, Thirty Years' War 1.5-5.8 million, Thirty Years' War 8-12 million, Dungan Rebellion 30 million, Ming Dynasty 15-65 million, World War I
3.5-7 million, Napoleonic Wars 1-3 million, Nigerian Civil War 25 million, Qing Conquest of China 18-45 million, Great Leap Forward
2-4 million, French Wars of Religion 1.5 million, Armenian Genocide 20-30 million, Taiping Rebellion 18-25 million, Soviet Union atrocities
1-3 million, The Crusades .8-.9 million, Greek Genocide 17 million, An Lushan Rebellion 5 million, North Korea
0.8-3 million, Vietnam War .4 million, Darfur Genocide[1] 2 million, Khmer Rouge
1.8-3.5 million, Chinese Civil War
1-2 million, 1983-85 Famine in Ethiopia
Total: 27-86 million Total: 19-95 million Total: 88-114 million Total: 160-170 million Total: 261-419 million


Asian Gendercide

See also Abortion

Sex-selective abortion in communist China and its neighboring countries has led to a mass gender disparity, some 160-200 million missing women. Atheistic principles of eugenics and abortion can be directly blamed for these 160-200 million deaths.

Second Sino-Japanese War

For the sake of readability I have simply grouped the atrocities of the Empire of Japan together. I am considering the following to be included with the Second Sino-Japanese War, it is possible they may be separate events.

  • 4 million, Bengal Famine of 1943
  • 2.4 million, Japanese Occupation of the Dutch East Indies
  • 0.4-2 million, Vietnamese Famine of 1945

The Empire of Japan formally had no religion and exercised separation of church and state without a state religion, so I was tempted to classify it as atheism. However it had strong relationship to the Shinto religion, which while sometimes classified as non-religious, would seemingly fall more into the Eastern religion category.

Nazi Germany

See also Germany and Atheism

The Nazis were definitely socialistic and inspired by secular Darwinism. The German word for Nazi literally translates as "National Socialism." Nazism revolves around the concept of Social Darwinism. As such, both World Wars are here labeled as Atheistic. While efforts have been made by secular liberals to label Hitler a Christian, Hitler ultimately persecuted Christians like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church, and had them put to death.

In Germany alone over 800 Protestant pastors were arrested by the Nazi Party under Hitler's reign, and outside of Germany French pastor Andres Trocme led the town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon to save thousands of Jews from the Nazis before they imprisoned him, and his second cousin, Daniel Trocme, was martyred by the Nazis for protecting Jews. Other examples of Christians persecuted by the Nazis for protecting Jews and honored accordingly by Israel's Yad Vashem include Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer, Cornelia ten Boom, Sister Anna Borkowska, Clement Sheptytsky, Ona Šimaitė, the Skobtsova family, Irena Sendler, Józef and Wiktoria Ulma, and Maria Kotarba, among many others.

Hitler at times made overtly religious statements for political advantage, similar to the way Barack Obama said he supported marriage between a man and a woman before Rick Warren, and that abortion was above his pay grade, before flipping on those positions once elected. However, Hitler's primary influence appears to have been the secular, liberal atheists who, like Nietzsche, Marx, and Haeckel, had dominated Germany the prior century.

Soviet Union

For the sake of readability I have simply grouped the atrocities of the Soviet Union together.

  • 5-9 million, Russian Civil War
  • 5-8 million, Soviet Famine of 1932-33
  • 6 million, Russian Famine of 1921
  • 1.5-2 million, Soviet-Afghan War


Vietnam War

The Vietnam War is categorized specifically as a Catholic war because the Vietnamese officials in place were always Catholics, the war appears to have been a struggle to uphold a Catholic, anti-Communist government.

Both Catholic and Protestant

I have provided the following in both the Catholic and Protestant categories since they were either fighting one another or were both involved to a high degree in the conflicts/atrocities. To avoid double-counting of the events as Christian given the high numbers involved I simply allocate half each to Catholicism and Protestantism.

Colonization of the Americas

A range of 10-100 million seems the typical consensus. While initial colonization of South and Central America by the Conquistadors was purely by Catholicism, specific atrocities by the U.S. government such as the Cherokee Trail of Tears can be more likely relegated to Protestantism. Therefore I have just classified American colonization as due to both Protestantism and Catholicism, given uncertainty as to which side was responsible for X percentage of the ensuing death toll.

Thirty Years War

Because both Protestants and Catholics were fighting against one another in the war, I've just categorized it for both of them.


Great Irish Famine

The Great Irish Famine (.75-1.5 million death toll) is uncategorized due to uncertainty as to the religion of Queen Victoria. She was likely Anglican.

Rwandan Genocide

I do not see a clear religion behind the government which committed the genocide (0.5-1 million).

Shaka's Conquests

Shaka of the Zulu tribe might best be described as pagan in religion, some 2 million appear to have died.

  1. United Human Rights Council. "Genocide in Darfur." Armenian Youth Federation - Western United States.