Hitler's regime was hardly atheistic. They got along fine with the Roman Catholic and most of the other Christian churches in Germany and various other countries, and every German soldier wore a belt buckle with the slogan "Gott Mitt Uns" (God is on our side)...and believed it too! They were very consciously fighting for Christendom against atheistic Communism.

However, I am not disputing your basic point, shadygrove. Atheistic regimes have been every bit as effective at wiping out innocent people if not more so, and the quasi-religious regimes like the Nazis were really after the usual dark objectives...land, resources, political and financial power, and military supremacy. God was an afterthought, a handy propaganda piece to motivate the ordinary soldiers to fight harder.

You might have included Mao Tse-Tung and the other Chinese Communist leaders among the atheists who have murdered millions of people. The invasion of Tibet and the destruction of its ancient Buddhist society is a prime example of genocide in the name of atheism.

- LH