"With due respect Steve, ideology has nothing to do with the violent crimes committed by Atheists in this century. . ." M Ted

I disagree. Ideology might or might not MOTIVATE the crime, but it sure is widely used to JUSTIFY it. Proletarian pogroms against Jews were justified by the lingo of class struggle, this was the identical dynamic as of Christian slaveowners and the people of Ham argument in the Old Testament, Islamist fanatics and the Koran's passages about revenge on infidels, Zionist radicals and the Mosaic passages about the land belonging to them, etc etc.

Ideology sure is useful when you want to classify your selfish urges as a noble response to the call of some higher duty. What, after all, could be more convenient?