Removing the tool doesn't remove the problem

principle

Banning an instrument of harm does not eliminate the motive or power structure using it. If those remain intact, the same impulse migrates into another language, symbol, or institution.

Remove religion, and organized mass violence should recede. Yet the USSR, the Khmer Rouge, and both world wars are offered as the blunt counterexample: enormous violence did not require religion as its engine.

Power changes instruments

The visible tool is only one layer of the causal chain. Underneath it sit an actor with power, a motive, and a need to justify or coordinate action. Religion can supply language, identity, and legitimacy—but when it is unavailable, powerful actors can recruit another doctrine or institution to perform those functions. The instrument changes while the underlying capacity and incentive to cause harm survive.

Where it shows up

Violence without religion

The USSR, the Khmer Rouge, and the two world wars matter here not because they had identical causes, but because they break the claim that removing religion removes the possibility of large-scale organized harm. Power found other banners.

Tools still shape the damage

This does not mean instruments are irrelevant or that restricting one can never reduce harm. A tool can amplify, legitimize, or organize an impulse in distinctive ways. The narrower claim is that tool removal alone is not a cure when motive and power remain—and different historical conflicts should not be flattened into one cause.

Regulate the tool, map the substitute

Before supporting a ban, write down the actor, motive, source of power, and likely replacement instrument. Pair any restriction with a measure aimed at one of those underlying conditions; otherwise you may merely redirect the behavior.

Episodes that teach this

Atheist vs God - A Rational Defense of Religion - Future IQ · explained at 5:58 11,716 views
"Do you think if you remove religion this problem will go away? No. The powerful will just use another tool... USSR, Khmer Rouge, World War I and II, none of those were about religion."