Michael Nugent of Atheist Ireland had an article in The Irish Times on Friday called ‘Myths about atheism obscure its secular values’. It was a highly sanitised presentation of atheism, what we might call ‘butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth’ atheism.

Reading Michael, it is as though atheism has no history, that it emerged new and whole into the world yesterday, as pure and innocent as a lamb.

It would be like me writing an article making the case for Christianity in which I excised from the record any mention of the terrible things done in the name of Christianity.

Michael Nugent has presented a version of atheism fully compatible with present day secular liberal/leftism.

Let’s leave aside for the moment the fact that there are different types of secularism, different types of liberalism and different types of leftisms and that an atheist can subscribe to any of them.

Let’s also leave to one side the fact that there are right-wing or conservatives atheists who don’t believe the highest value is equality at all, or who don’t mind (for example) public funding going to denominational schools.

Let’s only point out that atheism has an exceedingly bloody history and that atheistic regimes have often tried to apply a ‘final solution’ to religion, in that they have tried to eliminate it from the world through violence once and for all.

I give you the Soviet Union, Mao’s China, North Korea down to the present day, and Pol Pot’s Cambodia.

Atheists generally claim that the attacks on religion perpetrated by these regimes were not inspired by atheism as such.

I beg to differ. These regimes were all atheistic, were run by atheists and all viewed religion as something to be crushed, not tolerated.

There are plenty of perfectly moderate atheists as I say, but no honest account of atheism can leave out the militant and violent variety.