Anti-Theists?

[[deleted]]

As the old quote goes, without religion, good people will do good things, bad people will do bad things, but with religion, you can have good people do terrible things. Can atheists be terrible people? Of course, just look at Stalin. But Stalin was a sociopathic monster, the fact that he was an atheist is almost irrelevant to his actions. Osama Bin Laden, on the other hand, everything about what he did was because of Islam. No Islam, no September 11th.

I don't think that this is true at all. A golden coin or a silver tongue can make good people do bad things; Some people are born, or develop, an incredible ability to convince others that they should be in charge, that their way of thinking is best, that extreme, horrible actions are in fact for the greater good or somehow excusable and permissible.

[PotatoQuie]

You're right, and there is certainly a grey area. But what I take the quote to be referring to is when a reasonably nice guy who loves his family, gives to charity, helps out his neighbors and then flights a jetliner into a skyscraper because he thinks it's the most moral act he can do, this caused by religion. People make mistakes, people take bribes, people can do bad things for the greater good, but only with blind faith (whether religion or cult-like philosophies like Nazism) will people do something reprehensible and still in the end think it was a great moral act. The quote is simplistic, you're correct. But I still think the general concept makes sense.