Muslims are bad; Atheists are Good?

Bill Maher slammed Islam on his show Friday Sept. 21 promoting the view that all Muslims are bad. This is disturbing particularly when this weekend there were several protests with signs supporting the US and the former Libyan ambassador as well as substantial attacks that destroyed radical anti-west militia centers. So how does Maher advance such conclusions? He cannot admit a presence of diversity. He refused to acknowledge a range within this religious group. Every social group in my observations exists as a spectrum, yes every group. I reject the notion that such a monolithic party, religion, philosophy; church, synagogue, or mosque exists. Uniformity might well be a goal for such social entities, but achieving it remains unmet. All human creations of thought systems exist in ranges anywhere one cares to examine a group with some precision (even within Islam, Shii and Sunni stand as rival parties). There are some proponents of atheism, though I can’t say if Maher argues in parallel fashion, who advance a view of a type of caring nonviolent practical atheists, “good atheists” if you will. They object to including “bad atheists” like a Mao or Stalin because such examples did not hold a pristine pure view. How convenient, this is for depicting atheism, how enlightened, how humane. On the other hand every religion must bear its dark side but not atheism, communism must be treated separately. There is no doubt that much bloodshed springs from religious motivations over the centuries. It is simply disingenuous however to set forth atheism as devoid of this same human dark side. The death toll dispatched by communism stands in the tens of millions. As a philosophy or world view atheism must bear its dark fruit just like all other human thought systems.