What Is The Biggest Drawback Of Atheism?

[bigrebnc1775]

His message wasn’t a political message.

Yea well what did he know he was just a man. Like ghandi

24,000 written manuscripts say otherwise.

So what? The Jews disagree. Muslims disagree and atheists aren’t buying it no matter how many manuscripts are written.

No one has asked you to buy into it. Why are you determined to attack another's faith? You are almost leftist like.

He’s quoting a carpenter from 2000 years ago..

And this thread is a thread attacking atheists, you hypocrite snowflake. Imagine if I started a thread about the drawbacks to theism. Then you’d be on it asking me why I’m attacking your fake ass religion that’s controll8ng your puny political conservative mind.

It’s controlling you with stupidity. If you’ll believe in the jesus myth then you’ll believe anything like man made global warming doesn’t exist

Actually it's quite the opposite those who reject Jesus will bow to Satan

 

[james bond]

Atheists have it the best in this world

Just do what is right and no need to cower before phony Gods

Nah. You just want socialism and communism in order to form state atheism, and then kill a bunch of people who don't agree with you and get in your way. This is part of the BS you make up in order to gain political power. Even your handle is misdirection. Just read the Communist Manifesto.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

SINCE THIS ISN'T Europe and this is the 21st century anything you wrote is irrelevant.

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Again this isn't Europe and this is the 21st century Christians no longer torture no believers in America.

They have different ways to torture you.....

They give you a self righteous whine about how they are superior to everyone else

When they start to whine like you are doing right now all you have to do is walk away. But you are to hell-bent in attacking someone's belief

Not me starting threads about how bad Christians are

This isn't the first thread about Christianity that you and I have been a part of same old crap just another thread.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

His message wasn’t a political message.

Yea well what did he know he was just a man. Like ghandi

24,000 written manuscripts say otherwise.

So what? The Jews disagree. Muslims disagree and atheists aren’t buying it no matter how many manuscripts are written.

No one has asked you to buy into it. Why are you determined to attack another's faith? You are almost leftist like.

Did you ask this question to the person who started this thread? I bet you didn’t. Double standard?

And at least we vot for theists. You people won’t vote for atheists.

Have we burned you at the stake or ostracized any of you for believing?

Do we make gays feel bad about themselves?

So don’t be a snowflake. This is a Christians fallback defense when we mock your ridiculous beliefs

I'm asking you that question.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

SINCE THIS ISN'T Europe and this is the 21st century anything you wrote is irrelevant.

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Again this isn't Europe and this is the 21st century Christians no longer torture no believers in America.

Who cares what the conquerors of our ancestors do? I place my loyalty in the sacrifices of my forbearers. Where does your loyalty lie.. ?

I can't help what happened in the past. All I can do is the present because that is all I have.

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I'm beginning to thinking you are a water head. because that's the second time you've posted that pic of little relevance.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

His message wasn’t a political message.

Yea well what did he know he was just a man. Like ghandi

24,000 written manuscripts say otherwise.

So what? The Jews disagree. Muslims disagree and atheists aren’t buying it no matter how many manuscripts are written.

No one has asked you to buy into it. Why are you determined to attack another's faith? You are almost leftist like.

He’s quoting a carpenter from 2000 years ago..

And this thread is a thread attacking atheists, you hypocrite snowflake. Imagine if I started a thread about the drawbacks to theism. Then you’d be on it asking me why I’m attacking your fake ass religion that’s controll8ng your puny political conservative mind.

It’s controlling you with stupidity. If you’ll believe in the jesus myth then you’ll believe anything like man made global warming doesn’t exist

This thread is attacking atheist? toughen up buttercup maybe you shouldn't be a bleeding heart liberal with pinned up emotions If you think this thread is attacking you seek help.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

.

by and large ... the phony is rampant on both sides. the vast majority are in denial of any meaningful pursuits.

again no one is going to force you to become a Christian why the bitterness?

.

again no one is going to force you to become a Christian why the bitterness?

you are a joke ...

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nothing different today than throughout history, all three desert religions are evil, heretical - your calling.

The irony of the Europeans professing Christianity, is that their own ancestors were in fact slaughtered raped, subjugated, and enslaved into accepting Christianity... While their unaware decendents are carrying water for thier own ancestors nemesis. All the while saying "no one will force you"... Oblivious of the force that was brought to bear, that has them carrying their water....

When was the last time you were faced with accepting Christ or die?

You can't rape the willing...

Whatever that means

 

[sealybobo]

Yea well what did he know he was just a man. Like ghandi

24,000 written manuscripts say otherwise.

So what? The Jews disagree. Muslims disagree and atheists aren’t buying it no matter how many manuscripts are written.

No one has asked you to buy into it. Why are you determined to attack another's faith? You are almost leftist like.

He’s quoting a carpenter from 2000 years ago..

And this thread is a thread attacking atheists, you hypocrite snowflake. Imagine if I started a thread about the drawbacks to theism. Then you’d be on it asking me why I’m attacking your fake ass religion that’s controll8ng your puny political conservative mind.

It’s controlling you with stupidity. If you’ll believe in the jesus myth then you’ll believe anything like man made global warming doesn’t exist

This thread is attacking atheist? toughen up buttercup maybe you shouldn't be a bleeding heart liberal with pinned up emotions If you think this thread is attacking you seek help.

You asked “why am I attacking another persons faith, in a thread that’s attacking atheism.

You’re being a hypocrite. You guys can dish but not take it.

Me thinks it’s because I accurately mock your fake ass religion.

 

[sealybobo]

Atheists have it the best in this world

Just do what is right and no need to cower before phony Gods

Nah. You just want socialism and communism in order to form state atheism, and then kill a bunch of people who don't agree with you and get in your way. This is part of the BS you make up in order to gain political power. Even your handle is misdirection. Just read the Communist Manifesto.

Ayn rand was a capitalist and atheist.

Lots of capitalists don’t believe in god. Trumps probably one of them.

 

[rightwinger]

Atheists have it the best in this world

Just do what is right and no need to cower before phony Gods

Nah. You just want socialism and communism in order to form state atheism, and then kill a bunch of people who don't agree with you and get in your way. This is part of the BS you make up in order to gain political power. Even your handle is misdirection. Just read the Communist Manifesto.

The biggest drawback for Christians is they have to sit through weekly sessions of threats, fairy tales and guilt trips

 

[diver52]

I know it appears that way but most atheist never tell anybody they are an atheist. Nobody in my social life knows I am an atheist. You will never see those types of atheist on youtube.

You are referring to anti theist. These are people that think the belief in God is destructive philosophy or at least limiting the progress of the individual and society. I consider myself somewhat of an anti theist. I think atheist make better Christians than believers. I know that might seem like an oxymoron. I just think the Christian community needs thinkers for the 21st and 22nd centuries. Giving a member of the younger generation an evil eye isn't enough to keep them from leaving the faith anymore. You have to convince them to stay. You can do that if you know nothing.

The correct phrase is militant atheist. They are like the evangelicals of atheism.

I’m only pretty sure you are one of them.

I don't know about militant atheist, but my question to vasuderatorrent would be is he secular humanist? He's living a false life, so there's that. I don't think he gets paid for teaching Bible studies.

I am mostly an I don't knowist. I love Christianity. Christians are the salt and the light. There doesn't have to be a lot of salt to fulfill its purpose. There doesn't have to be a lot of light to fulfill its purpose. Christianity has brought a lot of good into the world. Yes. Even those violent wars of the past were good. If there was a liberal Christian denomination that didn't require you to believe any unrealistic stuff then that is what kind of Christian I would be. Christianity is the most powerful philosophy in existence. The Bible is the most powerful and most useful book you will ever read. It is also the most influential book ever written.

I just don't believe Jesus is a bastard child of the creator of the Universe. I don't believe the Hebrews were lucky enough to find the actual creator of the universe. Anything that happened in the Bible that I would disbelieve if you told me it happened to you, I equally disbelieve it happened back then.

I am an atheist of the God of the Bible. I am an atheist of Allah. I am an atheist of Zues. I have too many unexplainable situations in my life to rule out that there isn't a god at all. I just don't think I will ever know Him. I am mostly an I don't knowist and I am more comfortable not knowing it all than I was pretending that I had it all figured out. I honestly never did have it all figured out even though I acted like it.

It doesn't answer my question. Are you for secular humanism?

Secular humanism is absurd.

Do I believe human intellect is the absolute authority? Absolutely not. There has to be a basis of authority if you are to have a functioning society. Some suggest that authority is the Bible. Some suggest that authority is the laws determined by governments. I am ok with either of those views but allowing an arbitrary concept to be authority is chaos.

Without knowing how you define secular humanism I am going to say, "no". A belief that Dr. Seuss books are the ultimate source of authority is a superior idea than the nonsense that human intellect is the ultimate authority. That concept is absurd. We can't have 365 million people making 365 million intellectual decisions about right and wrong. There has to be a basic foundation. This is where the Christian Worldview dominates in the field of sociology, philosophy and law. Secular humanist must offer a source of authority that everyone embraces or it just will not function. You will have people that are tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.

It will crumble. No, just no. Secular humanism is absurd.

365 million people making 365 decisions on right and wrong is the only way it does work. Otherwise, it is merely a question of legal or illegal. The government or the society can't tell you if something is right or wrong. You are responsible for that decision on your own. You may decide that what is legal is still wrong, and should then abstain from doing it. You may even decide that what is illegal is right, in which case you either subjugate your own morality to power or you engage in civil disobedience.

 

[rightwinger]

Atheists have it the best in this world

Just do what is right and no need to cower before phony Gods

Nah. You just want socialism and communism in order to form state atheism, and then kill a bunch of people who don't agree with you and get in your way. This is part of the BS you make up in order to gain political power. Even your handle is misdirection. Just read the Communist Manifesto.

Socialism and communism?

We are doing just fine with a Constitution that gives religious freedom or freedom to not be religious

 

[beautress]

The ability to derive purpose, and the will to press ones self determination.

I need to believe in god to do those things?

We hav a purpose just like every othe4 animal on the planet.

And I can have the will to press my self determination without god too. Can’t I?

I fucking hope so.

I still don’t get you.

Create agency? Where did you hear that?

And I just proved we hav a purpose without god and we can press our self determination, whatever that even means.

Why are you saying nonsensical things and then end it with you hope so.

So I’m right? Still trying to figure out what you think is sad.

I think what you mean is how sad it must be not to believe that when I die I will become a god myself. Or I’ll burn in hell.

I find both notions preposterous

Sealybobo, no matter how religious we are, Christians do not determine who goes to heaven and who doesn't. God does that because he can look upon the heart. Mere mortals do not have that capacity.

I don't have any case against atheism, except for my experience. I sent my children to public schools, where both my kids - unbeknownst to me - were indoctrinated into atheism by teachers. Our school district did not ask and did not tell if teachers were believers or atheists, and I didn't think it mattered until the following facts hit me directly in the face. My son had already undergone 2 years of university studies that included a "study" of all the world's religions that caused him to believe none of them were valid, including and especially the church we raised him in. I had the misery of seeing my own son curse the church, our beloved and scholarly pastor, and 15 generations of my family's elders who believed in God including several ministers and schoolmarms who were above reproach, and it was an arrow in the back that went directly into my heart as I watched this unhappy diatribe unfold. He already had his bags packed and left directly from the church to go back to the school he had earned a four-year scholarship to in high school. Then when he graduated with two degrees, he left our home and went off for advanced studies with scholarships granted to him in North Carolina that gives free scholarships to one student from each state, and he was it. The next time I heard from him, he was telling me he was gay on my 52nd birthday. I almost fainted. The next time I heard from him he was on his honeymoon with his 4th boyfriend. That meant no grandchildren. I was hoping he would give back to our family an heir for a grandfather who had a photographic memory. It doesn't show up for several generations. The other child also adopted a hatred for the church through her atheism learned at high school. She has divorced herself from her parents who loved and supported her for 18 years. Her present to us from this hatred of faith was documented by her creating the nastiest scene imaginable on her 18th birthday, at which time she packed and left the next morning, never to return to the family. She scorned us because we would not allow her to live with her drinking friends in school whose parents merely purchased a separate apartment for their child when she was a freshman in high school. She invited my daughter to be her roommate two years before graduation, and we refused because in that state, parents are liable for everything their child does up until the age of 18. The child criticized us constantly for the last 2 years she lived at home. She hated the food, she said. She hated the curfews. She wanted to live with her rich friend who had no restrictions. She hated us for being faithful church members, and said we caused her to hate the church, that everything she loved we wouldn't allow, and she hated our home, which gave her own room, she hated the colors in her bedroom, which we purchased because she said her favorite color was purple, but once she got her bedroom linens of purple, she suddenly changed her mind and it became her most hated color. She left our home, got in trouble with the law through her best friend, who stole a car and crossed two state lines. The car belonged to only one of the girl's many paramours, the one who gave his galpal his wife's car. Now wasn't that special. Anyway, we got notifications from police in 3 states that my daughter knew where the woman was, but we didn't because the two of them took a joyride to yet another state, and didn't bother to tell us they were leaving since we weren't worth talking to for expecting our daughter to live within the simple rules of living and working for the good of self and others. She trashed every single rule we set, and she has not contacted me in over 7 years, including the year her daddy died, and I had to bury him without her support. She came to town, but defied propriety by badmouthing me and my late husband to anyone who would listen to her crazy speeches about what rotten people her parents were, and how she was better off not ever speaking to us again. I tried to contact her a year after her dad passed, but she returned my pictures of him that she didn't have and my card of love with black marks scribbled with the lie that she had moved and left no address. She has lived her life out rubbing it in how we destroyed her love, etc., etc., etc., by being too strict (we weren't), and a bunch of other false narrative about the badness of people who believe in God. The only time I can really remember anything negative about going to church was the Sunday she was going to wear a pair of jeans with two huge holes in the butt to let people know she didn't have to wear panties under her jeans. All I did was ask her to please wear jeans without holes in them, of which she had many pairs. She was defiant until her dad said something like "Going to the dump?" at which time she started laughing and immediately changed her pants and went to church with her family. I finally figured it out. She had to laugh to comply with dumb stuff parents care about. I didn't think much about it until her appearance on his funeral day to our family, but she stayed out of my sight, and I never got to see her nor years preceding the funeral.

So I figured it out. Atheists are created by people other than family, and they use any little detail of their displeasure against church principles to destroy those who remain true to the principles of loving God and his kingdom. The atheist trashes and throws away human beings he or she can't stand, and I can tell you right now, they can't stand parents who remain in their own church when push comes to shove. Our family will not have an heir who has grandpa's photographic memory through my children. I cry often because my children have built their lives around hating God and churches. It's just part of this generation. I heard some contemporary music at a bar the other night, and the songs they were singing were filled with 4-letter words, just like my daughter's final condemnatory of speech at me several years ago. I was not spared even one iota for my sacrifices in behalf of my daughter, which she has cheerfully forgotten with so much rage and hatred inside her that I never saw coming before the day I told her she couldn't go live with her gal pal with the apartment when she was just about 16 years old. If I had to raise a family again, they would not be going to public schools. The atheist push is too strong because religious parents are so busy serving their community, they have this false sense of belief that teachers share traditional mores. Instead, they prepare young women to have IUDs, knowledge of condoms, and how exciting sex is when they are twelve years old. Sex education was supposed to help curb sexual activities in teenagers. Instead, it got pushed into elementary schools, and venereal diseases have never been more rampant than after education put its bid in to make sure girls don't get pregnant. They weren't talking abortions the parents never hear about when they were shilling sex education for public schools.

In science, instead of learning about God's wonderful universe, they are taught that nothing matters except things that can be proven in a physical way, and that spiritual matters are hocus-pocus and all bad.

I can’t read the entire thing. I get the gist. Don’t blame the schools or atheism. Blame yourself. You raised those children and they rebelled against you and your form of Christianity.

My atheism or agnosticism didn’t stop me from being successful or respectful of my loving parents.

You’re blaming atheism not yourself.

You just judged me because you hate and wish to punish a sad widow who's had her share of judgmentality by people actually as cruel as you. I made great sacrifices for both of my children. They bestowed upon me evil for a lifetime of good that I gave them. I wouldn't change a single thing I did for them, but my nightly tears when I pray for them are sincere ones. I love and miss them both, and neither of them cares. God has his reasons that bad things happen to his children, but it doesn't go on forever, because he is merciful to widows even when the world is unkind and unjustly punishes people who are deep in sorrow for circumstances beyond human control. I accept what God allows. Someday, they will reject bad stuff and return to the teachings of their youth by parents who loved them more than wealth, and always will for as long as life lasts.

 

[james bond]

I know it appears that way but most atheist never tell anybody they are an atheist. Nobody in my social life knows I am an atheist. You will never see those types of atheist on youtube.

You are referring to anti theist. These are people that think the belief in God is destructive philosophy or at least limiting the progress of the individual and society. I consider myself somewhat of an anti theist. I think atheist make better Christians than believers. I know that might seem like an oxymoron. I just think the Christian community needs thinkers for the 21st and 22nd centuries. Giving a member of the younger generation an evil eye isn't enough to keep them from leaving the faith anymore. You have to convince them to stay. You can do that if you know nothing.

The correct phrase is militant atheist. They are like the evangelicals of atheism.

I’m only pretty sure you are one of them.

I don't know about militant atheist, but my question to vasuderatorrent would be is he secular humanist? He's living a false life, so there's that. I don't think he gets paid for teaching Bible studies.

I am mostly an I don't knowist. I love Christianity. Christians are the salt and the light. There doesn't have to be a lot of salt to fulfill its purpose. There doesn't have to be a lot of light to fulfill its purpose. Christianity has brought a lot of good into the world. Yes. Even those violent wars of the past were good. If there was a liberal Christian denomination that didn't require you to believe any unrealistic stuff then that is what kind of Christian I would be. Christianity is the most powerful philosophy in existence. The Bible is the most powerful and most useful book you will ever read. It is also the most influential book ever written.

I just don't believe Jesus is a bastard child of the creator of the Universe. I don't believe the Hebrews were lucky enough to find the actual creator of the universe. Anything that happened in the Bible that I would disbelieve if you told me it happened to you, I equally disbelieve it happened back then.

I am an atheist of the God of the Bible. I am an atheist of Allah. I am an atheist of Zues. I have too many unexplainable situations in my life to rule out that there isn't a god at all. I just don't think I will ever know Him. I am mostly an I don't knowist and I am more comfortable not knowing it all than I was pretending that I had it all figured out. I honestly never did have it all figured out even though I acted like it.

It doesn't answer my question. Are you for secular humanism?

Secular humanism is absurd.

Do I believe human intellect is the absolute authority? Absolutely not. There has to be a basis of authority if you are to have a functioning society. Some suggest that authority is the Bible. Some suggest that authority is the laws determined by governments. I am ok with either of those views but allowing an arbitrary concept to be authority is chaos.

Without knowing how you define secular humanism I am going to say, "no". A belief that Dr. Seuss books are the ultimate source of authority is a superior idea than the nonsense that human intellect is the ultimate authority. That concept is absurd. We can't have 365 million people making 365 million intellectual decisions about right and wrong. There has to be a basic foundation. This is where the Christian Worldview dominates in the field of sociology, philosophy and law. Secular humanist must offer a source of authority that everyone embraces or it just will not function. You will have people that are tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.

It will crumble. No, just no. Secular humanism is absurd.

Well, that's the big political reason.



Another big reason is lack of faith which you mentioned. This means you believe in no God and are fine being separated from God or atheism. You either want proof of God (agnostic) or claim there is no God without any evidence yourself of no God (atheism). Thus, atheism is a religion based on faith in no God. You believe in rational thinking and human's abilities, but not that of faith in God. You have faith in no God.

So you never sincerely believed in God or Jesus and prayed for God to reveal himself? Many people start with John 3:16 or similar verse in John.

 

[BreezeWood]

again no one is going to force you to become a Christian why the bitterness?

.

again no one is going to force you to become a Christian why the bitterness?

you are a joke ...

View attachment 281871

nothing different today than throughout history, all three desert religions are evil, heretical - your calling.

The irony of the Europeans professing Christianity, is that their own ancestors were in fact slaughtered raped, subjugated, and enslaved into accepting Christianity... While their unaware decendents are carrying water for thier own ancestors nemesis. All the while saying "no one will force you"... Oblivious of the force that was brought to bear, that has them carrying their water....

SINCE THIS ISN'T Europe and this is the 21st century anything you wrote is irrelevant.

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Again this isn't Europe and this is the 21st century Christians no longer torture no believers in America.

.

Again this isn't Europe and this is the 21st century Christians no longer torture no believers in America.

It is either the first or the fourth.

I can't help what happened in the past. All I can do is the present because that is all I have.

you relish the past without remorse, that was the point of the 4th century to intervene with a false religion of fear and distortion as they have practiced since that time to the present.

unfortunately that awful book has been reedited to accommodate the minimum acceptable norms for the robust secular society, your claim to fame "today's christianity" rather than its rightful demise as a work of evil.

 

[james bond]

You asked “why am I attacking another persons faith, in a thread that’s attacking atheism.

Yet, if you have faith in no God and aren't afraid of or are fine with being separated from God, then you should be able to defend your atheism if I am attacking it. I thought death was the big drawback as once you die, then life is over. Finito. That's all folks. Is that all there is? But that's just my pov from a fundamentalist viewpoint. It may not be yours. One person thought death was better with atheism as they'll treat life more precious. I don't think so. That's just rationalization, not rational thinking. The same with being moral. It may make you having a more comprehensive view of religion because believers usually believe in one religion that they found as truth. I always believed in God, even as a child, as how else could the universe, Earth, and everything in it be here? Later, as an adult, I tested that belief by comparing it to ToE and evolutionary thinking. This fundamental belief in God and praying to a God and getting your prayers answered led to the Bible. That became the document that answered everything, so I knew it was true. Thus, it started with faith and eventually it led to the Bible in 2012. Before the Bible, there were answers still lacking. I believed in evolution before that, but evolution has its own questions that it does not answer. Usually, the weird explanation of common ancestor. How layers of earth just formed in an ordered manner from past to the present when we had catastrophes all over. How it takes long time for geological formations. And more.

 

[james bond]

Socialism and communism?

We are doing just fine with a Constitution that gives religious freedom or freedom to not be religious

Atheism leads to communism.

I don't believe you. You'll find something to complain and whine about.

 

[BreezeWood]

Secular humanism is absurd.

Without knowing how you define secular humanism I am going to say, "no".

prove morality is dependent on a (false) messiah ...

 

[mamooth]

Atheism leads to communism.

That's cuckoobananas talk, being that it's plainly contradicted by observed reality.

The evidence? I know many atheists. None are communists.

The conclusion? It's hard to tell. You're obviously saying crazy things. The question is _why_ you're saying such crazy things. We'll need to view more evidence before we can determine that.

 

[james bond]

That's cuckoobananas talk, being that it's plainly contradicted by observed reality.

The evidence? I know many atheists. None are communists.

The conclusion? It's hard to tell. You're obviously saying crazy things. The question is _why_ you're saying such crazy things. We'll need to view more evidence before we can determine that.

I know atheists. They're usually secular humanists and secular humanists will become communists. The Democrat party is already trying to make the US into a socialist state.

You're the one who is cuckoobananas as this is political cause and effect. It's in the Communist Manifesto and history has backed it up with Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union, Mao's China, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Hitler's Third Reich, and more.

Man, you are a farking commie dumbass.

For the ones who are literate and not dumbasses...

"Karl Marx said "Religion is the opium of the people".[1] Marx also stated: "Communism begins from the outset (Owen) with atheism; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction."[2]

Vladimir Lenin similarly wrote regarding atheism and Communism: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on in practice and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."[3]

Friedrich Engels wrote of atheistic evolutionism and Communism: "Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered law of development of human history."[4]

In 1955, Chinese Communist leader Zhou Enlai declared, "We Communists are atheists".[5] In 2014, the Communist Party of China reaffirmed that members of their party must be atheists.[6] See also: China and atheism

In 2016, the International Business Times reported:

“ A senior Chinese advisor on religious affairs has said the country should promote atheism throughout society, in remarks that appear to reflect a deepening campaign to reinforce traditional Marxist values in China — and could add to concern about official attitudes among believers in the country’s five officially recognized religions.[7] ”
In 2014, the New American website indicated:

“ The Communist Party of China (CPC) is letting its members know that the party’s official adherence to militant atheism has not changed; Party members are not allowed to be Christians, or to hold any other religious beliefs. That is the clear message sent by a top Party official in an editorial published on November 14 in the Global Times, the international version of People’s Daily, the official newspaper and mouthpiece of the CPC.[8]"

Atheism and communism - Conservapedia

"Twentieth century
Atheism in the twentieth century found recognition in a wide variety of other, broader philosophies in the Western tradition, such as existentialism, Objectivism,[75] secular humanism, nihilism, logical positivism, Marxism, anarchism, feminism,[76] and the general scientific and rationalist movement. Neopositivism and analytical philosophy discarded classical rationalism and metaphysics in favor of strict empiricism and epistemological nominalism. Proponents such as Bertrand Russell emphatically rejected belief in God. In his early work, Ludwig Wittgenstein attempted to separate metaphysical and supernatural language from rational discourse. H. L. Mencken sought to debunk both the idea that science and religion are compatible, and the idea that science is a dogmatic belief system just like any religion.[77]

A. J. Ayer asserted the unverifiability and meaninglessness of religious statements, citing his adherence to the empirical sciences. The structuralism of Lévi-Strauss sourced religious language to the human subconscious, denying its transcendental meaning. J. N. Findlay and J. J. C. Smart argued that the existence of God is not logically necessary. Naturalists and materialists such as John Dewey considered the natural world to be the basis of everything, denying the existence of God or immortality.[78][79]

The historian Geoffrey Blainey wrote that during the twentieth century, atheists in Western societies became more active and even militant, though they often "relied essentially on arguments used by numerous radical Christians since at least the eighteenth century". They rejected the idea of an interventionist God, and said that Christianity promoted war and violence, though "the most ruthless leaders in the Second World War were atheists and secularists who were intensely hostile to both Judaism and Christianity" and "Later massive atrocities were committed in the East by those ardent atheists, Pol Pot and Mao Zedong". Some scientists were meanwhile articulating a view that as the world becomes more educated, religion will be superseded.[80]

State atheism

Mao Zedong with Joseph Stalin in 1949. Both leaders repressed religion and established state atheism throughout their respective Communist spheres.
Often, the state's opposition to religion took more violent forms. Consequently, religious organizations, such as the Catholic Church, were among the most stringent opponents of communist regimes. In some cases, the initial strict measures of control and opposition to religious activity were gradually relaxed in communist states. Pope Pius XI followed his encyclicals challenging the new right-wing creeds of Italian Fascism (Non abbiamo bisogno, 1931) and Nazism (Mit brennender Sorge, 1937) with a denunciation of atheistic Communism in Divini redemptoris (1937).[81]

The Russian Orthodox Church, for centuries the strongest of all Orthodox Churches, was suppressed by the Soviet government.[82] In 1922, the Soviet regime arrested the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.[83] Following the death of Vladimir Lenin, with his rejection of religious authority as a tool of oppression and his strategy of "patently explain," Soviet leader Joseph Stalin energetically pursued the persecution of the Church through the 1920s and 1930s. Lenin wrote that every religious idea and every idea of God "is unutterable vileness... of the most dangerous kind, 'contagion of the most abominable kind".[84] Many priests were killed and imprisoned. Thousands of churches were closed, some turned into hospitals. In 1925 the government founded the League of Militant Atheists to intensify the persecution. The regime only relented in its persecution following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.[82] Bullock wrote that "A Marxist regime was 'godless' by definition, and Stalin had mocked religious belief since his days in the Tiflis seminary". His assault on the Russian peasantry, wrote Bullock, "had been as much an attack on their traditional religion as on their individual holdings, and the defense of it had played a major part in arousing peasant resistance . . . ".[85] In Divini Redemptoris, Pius XI said that atheistic Communism being led by Moscow was aimed at "upsetting the social order and at undermining the very foundations of Christian civilization":[86]

The central figure in Italian Fascism was the atheist Benito Mussolini.[87] In his early career, Mussolini was a strident opponent of the Church, and the first Fascist program, written in 1919, had called for the secularization of Church property in Italy.[88] More pragmatic than his German ally Adolf Hitler, Mussolini later moderated his stance, and in office, permitted the teaching of religion in schools and came to terms with the Papacy in the Lateran Treaty.[87] Nevertheless, Non abbiamo bisogno condemned his Fascist movement's "pagan worship of the State" and "revolution which snatches the young from the Church and from Jesus Christ, and which inculcates in its own young people hatred, violence and irreverence."[89]

The Western Allies saw the war against Hitler as a war for "Christian Civilisation",[90][91] while the atheist Stalin re-opened Russia's churches to steel the Soviet population in the battle against Germany.[92][93] The Nazi leadership itself held a range of views on religion.[94] Hitler's movement said it endorsed a form of Christianity stripped of its Jewish origins and certain key doctrines such as belief in the divinity of Christ.[94][95] In practice his government persecuted the churches, and worked to reduce the influence of the Christianity on society.[96] Richard J. Evans wrote that "Hitler emphasised again and again his belief that Nazism was a secular ideology founded on modern science. Science, he declared, would easily destroy the last remaining vestiges of superstition [. . .] 'In the long run', [Hitler] concluded in July 1941, 'National Socialism and religion will no longer be able to exist together' [. . .] The ideal solution would be to leave the religions to devour themselves, without persecutions' ".[97][98]

Party membership was required for civil service jobs. The majority of Nazi Party members did not leave their churches. Evans wrote that, by 1939, 95 percent of Germans still called themselves Protestant or Catholic, while 3.5 percent were gottgläubig (lit. "believing in god") and 1.5 percent atheist. Most in these latter categories were "convinced Nazis who had left their Church at the behest of the Party, which had been trying since the mid 1930s to reduce the influence of Christianity in society".[99] The majority of the three million Nazi Party members continued to pay their church taxes and register as either Roman Catholic or Evangelical Protestant Christians.[100] Gottgläubig was a nondenominational Nazified outlook on god beliefs, often described as predominantly based on creationist and deistic views.[101] Heinrich Himmler, who himself was fascinated with Germanic paganism[citation needed], was a strong promoter of the gottgläubig movement and didn't allow atheists into the SS, arguing that their "refusal to acknowledge higher powers" would be a "potential source of indiscipline".[102]

Across Eastern Europe following World War II, the parts of the Nazi Empire conquered by the Soviet Red Army, and Yugoslavia became one party Communist states, which, like the Soviet Union, were antipathetic to religion. Persecutions of religious leaders followed.[103][104] The Soviet Union ended its truce against the Russian Orthodox Church, and extended its persecutions to the newly Communist Eastern bloc: "In Poland, Hungary, Lithuania and other Eastern European countries, Catholic leaders who were unwilling to be silent were denounced, publicly humiliated or imprisoned by the Communists. Leaders of the national Orthodox Churches in Romania and Bulgaria had to be cautious and submissive", wrote Blainey.[82] While the churches were generally not as severely treated as they had been in the USSR, nearly all their schools and many of their churches were closed, and they lost their formally prominent roles in public life. Children were taught atheism, and clergy were imprisoned by the thousands.[105]

Albania under Enver Hoxha became, in 1967, the first (and to date only) formally declared atheist state,[106][107] going far beyond what most other countries had attempted—completely prohibiting religious observance and systematically repressing and persecuting adherents. Article 37 of the Albanian Constitution of 1976 stipulated, "The state recognizes no religion, and supports atheistic propaganda in order to implant a scientific materialistic world outlook in people."[108][109] The right to religious practice was restored with the fall of communism in 1991.

Further post-war communist victories in the East saw religion purged by atheist regimes across China, North Korea and much of Indo-China.[105] In 1949, China became a Communist state under the leadership of Mao Zedong's Communist Party of China. China itself had been a cradle of religious thought since ancient times, being the birthplace of Confucianism and Daoism, and Buddhists having arrived in the first century AD. Under Mao, China became officially atheist, and though some religious practices were permitted to continue under State supervision, religious groups deemed a threat to order have been suppressed—as with Tibetan Buddhism from 1959 and Falun Gong in recent years. Today around two-fifths of the population claim to be nonreligious or atheist.[110] Religious schools and social institutions were closed, foreign missionaries expelled, and local religious practices discouraged.[105] During the Cultural Revolution, Mao instigated "struggles" against the Four Olds: "old ideas, customs, culture, and habits of mind".[111] In 1999, the Communist Party launched a three-year drive to promote atheism in Tibet, saying intensifying propaganda on atheism is "especially important for Tibet because atheism plays an extremely important role in promoting economic construction, social advancement and socialist spiritual civilization in the region".[112]"

History of atheism - Wikipedia