Grey, most of the largest massacres in human history have been carried out by atheists. Stalin, Mao, Pol pot etc. were all atheists.
reports of their atheism have been greatly exagaratted.
Argument: Stalin had faith, but not religionSome evidence suggests Stalin, although not following a particular religion, may have been spiritual (had personal faith, but did not practice a religion).
English historian Simon Sebag Montefiore studied Stalin’s hobbies and personal library, what Stalin liked to read, what kind of marks he left in his books. He found that Stalin liked to quote long quotes from the Bible. Stalin left such mark about God in the book by Anatole France "Last pages. Dialogues under a rose. About God": "Don‘t know traces, don‘t see. There is no Him for them." ("Следов не знают, не видят. Его для них нет."). It seems that Stalin thought he knew God’s traces and saw God, not like others.
Stalin "denied categorically to prescribe atheistic literature to his personal library, fastidiously calling it ""antireligious waste-paper (junk)"". ("Secret life of Stalin : By materials of his books and archive : According to Stalinism" by Ilizarov.B.S. 2004)
Stalin wrote poems in Georgian language. They are so good that were being published in local magazines. Few fragments sounds so (translation from Georgian to Russian language by L.Kotiukov (Л. Котюков), Newspaper "Duel" N10(101)1999-03-09. "Poet Josef Dzhugashvili" (Газета "Дуель", "Поет Иосиф Джугашвили" N 10(101) 1999-03-09. Б.М. Гунько)):
(...) In his burden and song like the beam of the Sun, lived great truth – DIVINE dream.
(...) But people who forgot GOD, with darkness in their hearts, instead of wine served poison to him in the cup.
And told to him: "Damn you! Drink this cup to the bottom!... And your song is alien for us, and we don’t need your truth!"
The above poem is probably a reference to Socrates who history says was made to drink poison from a cup because he "introduced a foreign god into the city gods." "More specifically, Socrates’ accusers cited two ‘impious’ acts: ‘failing to acknowledge the gods that the city acknowledges’ and ‘introducing new deities.’ as noted in =http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Socrates.]Socrates was not an atheist.
http://freethoughtpedia.com/wiki/Was_Stalin_an_atheist%3F What is known for certain is that they were all totallitarian communists with psychopathic personalities and delusions of grandeur. The same type of people have lead fascists, catholics, jews, capitalists, muslims, greeks, romans, and Mexican sun worshippers.