Gott Mit Uns: Open Letter to Atheists and Theists

[Thorne]

But given the record of religious persecution in the Soviet Union and China, one certainly can't claim that atheists have never been guilty of religious war. And given the pogroms against the early Xians in Rome, we Pagans aren't guiltess either...

It was never my intention to imply that. The unfaithful are just as cruel and depraved as the faithful. They just don't use religion to justify it.

[leo9]

It was never my intention to imply that. The unfaithful are just as cruel and depraved as the faithful. They just don't use religion to justify it.

Though on second thought, it's a moot point whether communists can be called non-believers.

To paraphrase Clarke, any sufficiently fanatical ideology is indistinguishable from religion.

[Thorne]

Though on second thought, it's a moot point whether communists can be called non-believers.

Actually, I would guess you could claim that true communists are the ultimate believers in the goodness of humanity. They believe that, if everyone is treated equally, with equal access to goods and services, without fear of hunger or illness, that everyone will work to their highest capabilities in order to preserve the common good.

In actuality, of course, it doesn't quite work out that way. Which is why the Soviet Union no longer exists, why China is branching out into a controlled capitalism, and why Cuba and North Korea, at least, can only survive as rigidly controlled dictatorships which ruthlessly (at least in the case of NK) hold down their populations.