"These are not contradictory statements, much as, for example, Bill Maher is both an atheist and a Democrat."

"Stalin's regime was explictly atheist and even persecutory towards religions (to varying degrees, and it softened a great deal during the war.) "

"Nazism was not an atheist movement, but it was secular in that it did not identify with any one religion"

"In your definition an atheist can not be a liberal or a conservative, a libertarian or a socialist."

I never mentioned he was a crypto-Christian.

It also doesn't make it atheism and as I've pointed out, neither Hitler and Stalin were forces of atheism or secularism.

"ideology can definitely function in a way similar to religion, and it can certainly engender a fanaticism that is functionally the same thing as religious zeal - and it can be closely related to religion,"

Why not? Not every religion has to follow an Abrahamic faith model. Especially when you consider the relative lack of education of most of the people in Stalinist Russia, it is not far-fetched at all that the people would worship Stalin as a God and follow what he says.

"If you wish atheism to also mean someone who does not believe in any ideologies, I'm not sure you'd be left with anyone you can actually call an atheist."

"This said, wars are not ever solely about ideology either, even if that is a major or arguably primary component to them."

"he was an atheist who was the leader of a country whose governing ideology was explicitly atheist"

"There hasn't been a single religious war that was solely about religion though."

"Stalin was definitely an atheist."

""The truth" in implying female genital mutilation is a problem in Muslim countries, when it's a problem in African countries largely irrelevant of the predominant religion?"

It's Patton's point that: "No, your son killed himself because he was an unstable idiot. Those people started wars because they were unstable idiots. "

"Of course, even if they didn't have Dawkins to cite as the spokesperson for atheism, they'd still have Stalin and Hitler."

"My point is that Maher holds some regressive, even bigoted, and just plain wrong ideas. Do you think that is false?"

Of course Jezebel has the headline:

"Have you accepted Patton Oswalt as your personal comedy savior?"

"Do you have any actual rebuttal to my point? Did I misconstrue those words? Or are you just mad I don't like your Atheist Hero?"