"Don't make this just a Christian and Muslim thing."
I don't, I hate and fear all murderous fanatics, whether they do it for politics, oil or their particular make of god.
"never did what they did **in the name of** atheism."
Exactly right.
"Shit happens, Jim."
It doesn't JUST happen Joe; it happens because intolerance creats the circumstances for it to be allowed to happen, and the church - any church, should never be allowed to say that it was nothing to do with them. There are already far too many tangibles; money, power, territory.... which cause suffering and killing without throwing ghosts and bogies into the argument to confuse things even more.
Clerical child abuse happened because the church heirarchy either participated or looked the other way. Now an unrepentant and unapologetic church is fighting to be left in control of schools so they can continue to manipulate the minds of the very children they abused.
This argument is about religion - pure and simple; how did it go "Let he who is without sin.....!".
Jim Carroll