RE: RLT wrote (grounds)

John E. Rylander (rylander@prolexia.com)
Thu, 26 Feb 1998 12:05:46 -0600

RLT,

In talking about how fundamentalists have no place in civilized society (!),
you should always remember that at least one ideological grouping,
historically, has done literally orders (plural) of magnitude more harm (at
least wrt both body count of the dead, and quantity of people totalitarianly
controlled) than fundamentalist zealots.

That ideological category?

Anti-religious zealots.

Two cases in point: Marxists (and particularly Marxist-Leninists), and Nazis
(National Socialists, not just vehemently and explicitly anti-Semitic, but
also vehemently and explicitly [albeit more quietly, for politically obvious
reasons] anti-Christian).

The Inquisition killed thousands; the anti-religious zealots have
killed -tens of millions-, well over a hundred million if one includes
indirect deaths (e.g., all combat deaths in WW2).

So express criticisms, sure, but you're drifting toward serious wackohood
yourself, frankly.

--John Rylander