One of the most favorite arguments against Christianity is based on the idea of shaming Jesus and his message because of us who claim to be his followers. The argument is usually worded as such:
More people have been killed by Christians in the name of God than for any other reason.
Here is a quote from John E. Remsburg:
"The name of Christ has caused more persecutions, wars, and miseries than any other name has caused."People whose arguments such as these really think that the Crusades, Inquisitions, the European religious Civil Wars, and persecutions by Christians in the name of God have killed more people than secular and totalitarian governments. This simply is not true. If you add up the 2000 years of Christian history and estimate the number of deaths due to atrocities committed in God's name you get 17 million! However if you do the same for agnostic/atheistic atrocities for just the 20th century, you get 1,128,000,000 people! That is about for every one person killed by a Christian, 66 were killed by atheists!
In presenting this I'm not trying to say that the atrocities committed during the crusades, inquisition, or witch burning is okay or better than say the Nazi Holocaust or Stalin's purge because less people died. No. God is going to hold all perpetrators accountable. It's all evil. However, to say that Christianity is responsible for the most deaths is simply not true.
Isn't religion to blame for most of history's killings?