vivster said:
There is no such thing as "state-atheism". Atheism is a belief based on rational thought that a person will find on his own. That's the great thing about atheism, you don't need to be indoctrinated by your parents or the state to find it. None of the states you mentioned used atheism as a tool to oppress people, simply because there are no atheist policies to use because atheism does not have policies. It just so happened that those states were not ruled my religion. |
Actually, I think most atheists these days had to have come to that belief through being made aware of it, not by finding it on your own. I know that I didn't become an atheist until after I was made aware that such a thing existed. And by state atheism, it's not necessarily in that atheism is the official policy, but many religious institutions were shut down, and the religious leaders executed.
setsunatenshi said:
I was about to say it, but you beat me to it, so I'll just say... pretty much this. I would only change from "belief..." to "disbelief in gods" Nothing more is needed. No rules or instructions bind every atheist together. It's just an opinion on 1 single subject. |
I do agree that atheism is a generic term, and that people cannot be grouped together based on it, but that doesn't mean that a harsh, authoritarian regime cannot do such a thing.
SpokenTruth said:
That's not how that works. A lack of religion is not a religion. It's not like those nations were making speeches on atheism. Nor where they violent as a platform for being non-religious. It's like not having a favorite sports team. Some fans will fight over which team is the best but nobody is going to fight others on the basis that they don't follow sports. |
I don't know if they made speeches on atheism, but they made speeches against religion. I'm not sure if you want to use Wikipedia as a valid source, but they mainly ended the campaign because they needed support for the regime after Operation Barbarossa:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USSR_anti-religious_campaign_(1928-1941)
Peh said:
Only one correction. Atheism is not belief based. It is a lack of belief. Rest is correct. There is no agenda, no doctrine, no rules, nothing of that sort in atheism. Atheism is just a theological position whereas an atheist don't believe in a god or gods. But some theists, mostly apologists, doesn't understand this simple explanation. |
Yes, that is true in that atheism is not a set ideology, and more of a generic term. However, we can talk about regimes in that sense, like the policies of the CPSU, CCP and Khmer Rouge.
