Atheism
Regarding religion:
Atheists often claim that "religion" is the cause of most of the world's problems. For example, well known atheist Christopher Hitchens' book title: "God is Not Great" has the subtitle: "How Religion Poisons Everything."
Or consider the title of popular atheist Richard Dawkins' television series about religion: "The Root of All Evil." Too many modern atheists seem to have an obsession about blaming all of the world's problems on "religion."
While man's religions have certainly caused problems (caused by man, not God), we also need to examine the results when societies have adopted atheism as their belief. The clearest example of a society adopting atheism is the former Soveit Union, which adopted atheism as a central component of communism.
Nobel prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who grew up under the atheistic communism of the Soviet Union, stated the following about the influence of atheism as a central component of communism:
"The world has never before known a godlessness as organized, militarized and tenaciously malevolent as that preached by Marxism. Within the philosophical system of Marx and Lenin and at the heart of their psychology, hatred of God is the principle driving force, more fundamental than all their political and economic pretensions. Militant atheism is not merely incidental or marginal to Communist policy; it is not a side effect, but the central pivot. To achieve its diabolical ends, Communism needs to control a population devoid of religious and national feeling, and this entails a destruction of faith and nationhood. Communists proclaim both of these objectives openly, and just as openly put them into practice."(Alexander Solzhenitsyn)
Solzhenitsyn, Acceptance Speech, Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, 1983; Russkaia Mysl', no. 3465, 19 May, 1983, p. 6 (R).
Atheism is a fundamental component of communism. Obviously, not all atheists are communists; there are atheists of various political persuasions. But it is undeniably true that atheism is central to communism.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was asked to account for the great tragedies that occurred under the brutal communist regime he and fellow citizens suffered under.
He stated the following in relation to atheism:
" Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened."
"Since then I have spend well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened."[28] "
* from Edward E. Ericson, Jr., "Solzhenitsyn - Voice from the Gulag," Eternity, October 1985, pp. 23, 24, quoted in http://www.conservapedia.com/Atheism
Atheism is a foundational cornerstone of communism. Regarding atheistic communism, and the resulting casualties:
"Dr. R. J. Rummel, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, is the scholar who first coined the term democide (death by government). Dr. R. J. Rummel's mid estimate regarding the loss of life due to communism is that communism caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987.[26] "
* Quoted from: http://www.conservapedia.com/Atheism#Atheism_and_Communism
This is an incredible loss of human lives, brought about by atheistic communism. This occurred because an overriding principle of atheistic communism is that the ends justify the means. If there is no God, and humans evolved from algae, then "survival of the fittest" can logically and very easily become the standard for people's behavior. You can then justify stepping on people, killing people, and using any means to achieve your ends. This is precisely what the communists did. They used the means of killing, lying, spying, intimidation and war, to try to achieve their end - the atheistic communist utopia.
The official journal of the Soviet Academy of Pedagogical Sciences published a government directive, Atheistic Education in the School, as a resource on how to separate God from human society. The opening paragraph is revealing:"The Soviet school, as an instrument for the Communist education of the rising generation, can, as a matter of principle, take up no other attitude towards religion than one of irreconcilable opposition; for Communist education has as its philosophical basis Marxism, and Marxism is irreconcilably hostile to religion.‘Marxism is materialism,' says V. I. Lenin; ‘as such, it is as relentlessly hostile to religion as the materialism of the Encyclopedaists of the eighteenth century or the materialism of Feuerbach.'" Another excerpt reads:"‘Religion'," Marx said,"is nourished not on heaven but on earth, and with the annihilation of that perverted reality, of which capitalism is the theory, religion will perish of its own accord.'"
(from http://www.topix.net/forum/topstories/T7FI8BPIBPCE4HSUD)
In the following quote, the communist leader V.I. Lenin admonishes communists to be more diligent to distribute atheistic writings to help with the advancement of atheism and communism in the Soviet Union:
......."These masses should be supplied with the most varied atheist propaganda material, they should be made familiar with facts from the most diverse spheres of life, they should be approached in every possible way, so as to interest them, rouse them from their religious torpor, stir them from the most varied angles and by the most varied methods, and so forth."
"The keen, vivacious and talented writings of the old eighteenth-century atheists wittily and openly attacked the prevailing clericalism and will very often prove a thousand times more suitable for arousing people from their religious torpor than the dull and dry paraphrases of Marxism.."
(full text: http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/mar/12.htm)
It is sad fact of history that atheistic communists were responsible for the death of multiplied millions of people, in the 20th century. Atheism was a core component of communism, not just a "sideline." Three core components of communist philosophy are "atheistic, dialectical materialism."
For atheists to blame all of the worlds' problems on religion, while ignoring or denying the impact of atheistic communism in the death of multiplied millions of people in the 20th century, is simply unsupportable.
In contrast to the violence of communism, Jesus never rallied his disciples to use violence to defend or advance Christianity. Instead, he went to the cross alone, and died a martyr's death as he bore the sins of the world. The early apostles and Christians never used the sword to convert people or advance Christianity. Instead, the opposite was true: when persecuted, they fled to other cities and towns, rather than resisting with violence. I believe the example of Christ himself is what the early church followed, and the example that believers should follow today.
It was only after many centuries, when the organized church had drifted very far from it's original foundation, that the church sanctioned the use of violence in sad episodes such as the crusades and the inquisition.
Today believers need to continue to follow the example of Jesus, and never use violence or force to advance religion.
M.A. Erickson
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Etching: by Gustave Dore
Article updated March 2010
Atheism Poster: Author Unknown
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