justinian on Sidechat | Not enough people acknowledge that atheist extremism also exists and is responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people and the destruction of many priceless ancient works of art.

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US Politics 1d

justinian

Not enough people acknowledge that atheist extremism also exists and is responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people and the destruction of many priceless ancient works of art.

Anonymous 1d

I think it’s not really accurate to call the atrocities under Stalin “atheist extremism.” Atheism isn’t an ideology. Yes communism was atheistic, but those actions were being done in the name of an ideology, which happened to have atheism as one aspect. There’s no tenants of atheism that motivate extremist actions because atheism has no tenants.

Anonymous 1d

Who killed people in the name of atheism

Anonymous 1d

So? It’s not like it’s done more harm than any other religion. It just happens to have a high death toll because it was the most dominant form of political extremism at a time where population was rapidly increasing worldwide. Had Christian extremism been dominant instead of communism the same thing would’ve happened with the same results

Anonymous

#1 1d

Most of the early communist leaders (who behaved more like fascists than progressive leftists)

Anonymous

justinian 1d

Don’t think they did that reallt in the name of atheism… just more in the name of their fascist regime

Anonymous

justinian 1d

Stalin cited atheism as his justification to kill people?

Anonymous

#1 1d

ok dude this isn’t a hard one, the Soviet Union tried to exterminate religion and was officially state atheist. Ironically Stalin relaxed the rules on religion during WW2 for the sake of national unity but was still very brutal to Christians, Muslims, and Jews (antisemitism on the basis of faith rather than ethnicity) before and after WW2. Some of the craziest radical atheism was from Lenin though, not Stalin.

Anonymous

justinian 1d

And yeah I think French Revolution was a lot of destruction in the name of secularism

Anonymous

#3 1d

I disagree, state atheism was a core tenet in many (not all) communist states, especially the earlier ones. Communist movements in Latin America were sometimes implicitly or explicitly Catholic. Evangelical Socialists and proto-communist circles existed in the USA. The Soviets, Revolutionary French, and some other groups went out of their way to try to cleanse the population of religious people on purpose (including Muslims and religious Jews)

Anonymous

justinian 1d

You could call anti-theism a form of ideology and reasonably make these arguments. But atheism is simply a lack of belief in something. That has no imperative to take any action, and no broader ideological through line. It’s no more a cohesive ideology than not believing in ghosts, or astrology, or divination.

Anonymous

#3 1d

actually thats a good point. I meant for an implied “radical” or “extremist” in there but thats a fair criticism. 🫡

Anonymous

justinian 1d

the zapatistas and sandinistas were catholic liberation theology yes but imo mentioning that for them does more justice to their history i get that your comment was a shorthand but they used liberation theology to also question why indigenous people were racialized and treated as subaltern, when it is contradictory to faith

Anonymous

#5 1d

Yea?