He doesn't deny that Stalin was an atheist but he does not follow your line that Stalin was motivated by atheism nor was his regime, but rather communism which he calls "a political religion." I suppose if Denny is allowed to argue that not having a religion is a religion (derp) than the idea of a political religion, using the same machinations and ingrained mass trust that a religious regime would be keen to exploit, is more logical than that. Dunno if I agree with either.
But I am gonna repeat the actual "political agenda" of communism. In order for communism to survive; it must renounce a belief in God. It isn't an atheism "view"; but atheism is used in their view; if you know what I mean. So when a communist destroys churches, kills monks or murders Jews; they are doing it to strengthen communism; which relies on atheism.
So anyway; this thread isn't about atheism only. Let's talk shit about radical theists. Jones town is of my age. That fucking dickhead murdered so many innocent kids, adults and was too chickenshit to drink of the koolaide.
Now you're making my point for me--to strengthen communism, in the name of communism. Not in the name of atheism. There's the stretch. If atheism is an intrinsic aspect of communism it's still not the motivation (consolidation of power).
Jim Jones, Sun Myung Moon, David Koresh, Joseph Smith, Shoko Asahara, Marshall Applewhite--how do you get people to do what you want them to do if you can't force them physically or lavish them? Tell them they'll be rewarded in an afterlife. Religious charlatans preying on faith and naïveté as they have since they invented religion.
I was talking with a friend about this very thing and he said to look at religion as a bank that never actually has to pay it's debt. The individual deposits faith, money and obedience expecting a payout in the afterlife. It's a great deal for religion. Imagine if they had to pay back, here's your 72 virgins in advance, now go commit a suicide bombing. No way, I'm staying here with my honeys. The church would be bankrupt of virgins, gold within a week. lol, just a funny perspective I hadn't contemplated.
Absolutely! But then wouldn't that apply to atheistic societies like Soviet Union and republic of china? How were they able to have billions do their bidding. You seemed to apply it only to theism. It works both ways; hence the thread title. When you have a group of people buying in to the ideology like communism.
Yes they do. Your opinion doesn't fly. You should research communism more. I have and atheism is a staple of their influence.
What about gang members who happen to be religious? Seriously it doesn't matter. Communism is bad no matter what religion you believe in.
Atheism is the ability or skill to think rationally, despite the pervasive influence of irrational propaganda. There is no church, no idol, no congregation. It is a singular and personal clarity of thought, and is separate and untouchable by any governmental ideology. It is not something religious folks can truly understand. Nor commies.
I've already said that religious people have extremists giving it a bad name too. I already agree it goes both ways. It seems many atheist take offense that another brother of their belief could be considered an evil society. There are peaceful atheistic societies too. Never said there wasn't. England is pretty heavily atheistic and it seems they aren't evil. Current Japan is very atheistic and they aren't evil.
Is that or is that not the truth? You asked me what I think atheism stands for and I answered that. Atheism supports a Godless thinking right? "That man does not need God to function. That man must survive on their own merits." Doesn't atheism believe that we are on our own in this universe because everything happened by natural selection? That evolution evolved us into the dominant species. That we evolved because we evolved in ways to make us the superior species on this planet? How is my response any sort of dodge?
I don't really get what your point is, what matters is Human Action (Austrian reference). Whether or not someone believes in something doesn't matter to me.
I asked you what someone stood to gain from it. From religion (generally), everlasting life. From communism, equality. From atheism, what? Nobody starts wars or does much of anything in the name of atheism. There's no carrot.
