Zachary, Thanks for that listing. It does seem to justify your hypothesis that religion is the cause of all these deaths. However, I would contend that the hypothesis is not proven. One reason is because the vast majority of people have a religious faith and it is only in more recent times that significant non believers have come to power. However, there have been some significant non believers in the past. One is Ghenghis Khan, born about 1160, who invaded Asia and Europe. On the Iranian Plateau alone, "possibly 10 to 15 million people" were slaughtered by his hordes and some say that Persia has only repopulated to the level at the time in the 20th century. He invaded many other countries. There a reports from the time of the ground being littered with the bones of dead people in those parts of the world he conquered.
It is interesting that this should have happened at that time because it was during the medieval warming period.
The let us not forget the "Terror" from 1790s in France motivated by a hatred of religion and the aristocracy. Countless thousands were killed including clergy and aristocrats.
Then there was Russia where millions were killed in various ways by Stalin over decades. He was followed by Mao who did the same, millions dying due to a godless dictatorship. In the 1960s the bodies used to wash up on the shore of Hong Kong facing the Pearl River. They floated down the river.
Then there is Hitler who killed several thousand Catholic priests alone in Poland as well at tens of thousand non Jews. I am not talking about soldiers. Some always come in on that one and claim Hitler was religious so his actions were due to religion.
Then let us not forget Campuchea where almost 2 million were killed by a Godless regime. Even today it is proving almost impossible to bring the perpetrators of that slaughter to justice.
My final one is abortion, millions every year are killed by abortion and this happens in civilized societies who think themselves moral. In China babies near term are killed by slamming something into their skull. This is now permissible in Victoria.
Note the millions killed by non religious belief systems and all in the modern era.
