In his attempt to categorise religion as the root of all evil, Dawkins deploys historical arguments in relation to Stalin and Hitler. In response to the charge that Stalin and Hitler committed their unspeakable crimes against humanity because they were atheists, Dawkins devotes pp. 308-316 of his book to arguing three propositions: atheism per se does not lead systematically to wicked deeds; though Stalin was an atheist, his atheism was incidental to his evil doing; and that Hitler’s wickedness emanated from a perverse religious world view.