A Stitch in Haste

Can someone explain to me why apologists for religion so easily get stuck on stupid in this manner?

The inevitable, even clichéd, response on the part of theists to this litany of woes is to ask: what about Hitler and Stalin? Yes, the question resorts to the hackneyed rhetorical ploy of et tu quoque (Latin for "So's your old man"). But at least the question's inevitability forces the atheist to show his hand. Thus Dawkins lamely avers that Hitler did believe in God (of sorts) and, hey, Stalin attended an Orthodox seminary in his youth! If that retort seems a tad desperate, England's most pious unbeliever concludes with this wan distinction: "Stalin was an atheist and Hitler probably wasn't, but even if he was, the bottom line of the Stalin/Hitler debating point is very simple. Individual atheists may do evil things but they don't do evil things in the name of atheism." So it's not atheism that's the problem, only atheists!

Leave it to a Jesuit priest — no blood on their hands, right? — to be so good at obfuscation.

Here's the redux, without the snarky Jesuit straw man prestidigitation about Dawkins:

Atheist: It's reasonable to conclude that perhaps 90% of all killing and 99% of all cruelty in human history has been inflicted in the name of, or legitimized by, organized religion.

Theist: But some of the other 10% was done by Hitler and Stalin, who were atheists!

Atheist: So almost 100% of all killing and suffering has been done either in the name of organized religion, legitimized by organized religion, or replicated by those who merely sought to replace organized religion with another form of anti-intellectual, yield-to-authority, reason-denying worship — of the Volk, the State, or some other anti-individualist, anti-mind, power-greater-than-you construct. How exactly does that help the radically incredulous theist claim that blind faith — in whatever — has been a net positive for humanity?

Theist: But, but — Hitler!

Hitler was a male. Hitler was an Austrian. Hitler was a vegetarian. Hitler was a Taurus. Hitler was left-handed. Hitler was an atheist. So what? What does any of that have to do with the millenia of unspeakable misery perpetrated upon humanity by organized religion?