Seriously, though, Communist persecution of religion is entirely because to follow a religion gives a person another allegiance, which undermines loyalty to the Communist state. It's nothing to do with atheism in itself. Communists are necessarily atheist as a result, but of course, not all atheists are Communists.
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The Bolsheviks sent Christians (the families of my grandparents on my mother's side) to Siberia to *die* — because atheists would not tolerate their *religious* belief. (They were basically Lutheran. My grandparents' parents had been "White Russian" migrants from Germany. Catherine the Great gave them land if they'd teach the natives better farming methods. Grandpa escaped the Russian army camp where he'd been inducted by crawling down the toilet hole in the outhouse at the army camp — a guard was at the door — & hightailing it to Germany! He sent back for Grandma & their 2 children. His dad went *back* to Russia, from Canada, to get *his* wife, got caught & got sent to Siberia.)

Persecution & massive execution has happened fully as much from atheists as from theists. It's time that atheists got *honest* about this. Their criticism of the religions' histories in this area is *valid*… but they need to "fess up" to the excesses of atheism, which are *equally* true.

Contemporary atheistic *humanists* — who really believe in the The Humanist Manifestos (humane documents, taking a stand for essential Human Rights) — would, i am sure, *never* support persecution & killing people in the manner of the atheistic Communist Revolutions & the theistic Crusades, Inquisition, Witch Hunts & Islamic jihads.

cf:

[Links below to Humanist Manifesto II & The Affirmations of Humanism: A Statement of Principles.]]
References :
http://www.americanhumanist.org/3/HumandItsAspirations.php

http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=main&page=affirmations

Edit: I think I know what you meant. My point is, your generalization leaves too much to sepculation. You need to elaborate on more than just anti-religious/theistic beliefs. People in power, no matter what they believe or don't believe, will leave victims in their wake. We have more in common than we have that is different.
References :
Agnostic…Atheist, perhaps?

I agree with the man (Steven Weinberg) who said:
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

Stalin was an evil person. He would have been evil whether or not he was an atheist.
The problem is with otherwise well-meaning people, who wouldn't normally do evil things, are led to do so by their religion. This is what doesn't happen with atheism.
References :

Nowhere in the whole history of mankind is a recording that a group of rabid atheists banded together, carrying the banner of "Atheism", to commit murder and mayhem on theists. The REVERSE, however, is true (have we already forgotten 9/11?).

The uneducated jerks who insist that communism and atheism are "linked" are exactly that: Uneducated (and stupid, I might add).

To Sashmead2001: So churches in Russia went from 54,000 to 500 in the span of 24 years. What part of my answer "Religions were abolished in these men's countries because they were seen as COMPETITION that could erode their power" didn't you understand?

To Sashmead #2 – I guess the only way I can make you understand what I'm trying to tell you is for you to actually read the biographies of the three biggest murderers of the 20th century (not counting the CHRISTIAN Hitler), where you will see that pure atheistic beliefs played no real part in their quest for power and glory. Btw, Stalin was raised a Christian. He didn't "convert" so much to atheism as much as he embraced the ideals of communism, which in the end was completely perverted and bastardized by him and his minions.

Hello again, Sashmead: Are you sure Hitler's views were generally anti-religious, or specifically anti-Semite? From what I remember he hated Jews with an abnormal passion, and his lifelong ambition was to create a purely "Aryan" race. He was not just a bigot against Jews, he was a White racist through and through.
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