Evangelist Ray Comfort, whose latest book is titled Fat Chance: Why Pigs Will Fly Before America has an Atheist President, went on conservative radio host Janet Mefferd‘s show last week to explain why atheists shouldn’t have political power.

Short answer: We’re immoral heathens, every one of us.

“Atheists have caused 110 million deaths in the last hundred years,” Comfort said. “Stalin, 60 million, he was an atheist. Mao, 40 million, and he was an atheist. Pol Pot, 1.7 million, he was an atheist. Vladimir Lenin, 5 million people slaughtered, he was an atheist. And so when people realize that, you can’t trust an atheist in a position of authority, especially politically. They may be nice people when you meet them in the street, but you give them power to do what they want and carry out their own agendas and you’re gonna find that they don’t have any moral high ground to stand on ‘cause they’re not standing on any whatsoever.”

To paraphrase: These obvious monsters who killed people — not in the name of atheism, but to advance their personal brand of dogma — represent atheists everywhere.

It makes as much sense as saying Stalin and Lenin had mustaches, so let’s never vote for someone who has facial hair. Because you never know…

Hell, by Comfort’s logic, we should stop giving power to men.

This argument Comfort is making has been debunked so many times, it’s about as weak an argument as Pascal’s Wager.

Here’s the main difference between politicians (or candidates) who openly identify as Christian or atheist: The Christians who wear their faith on their sleeve often have every intention of legislating the Bible as they see it. When they place their hand on the Bible as they take an oath of office, it’s not just for symbolic reasons.

The atheists who are running for office have no desire to push their atheism on everyone else. They say that explicitly — and I wouldn’t want to vote for anyone who said otherwise. They understand that elected officials have an obligation to keep church and state separate, and that they would represent Christians, Hindus, Muslims, atheists, and everyone else. The best way to govern is to make sure no one gets special treatment because of what they believe.

(via Right Wing Watch. Screenshot via YouTube)

