What does religion have in common with communism and facism?

Question

eg. dogma, cult of personality, belief in a certain one true path, intolerance of other systems, obligation to tow the "party line" etc

Could communism, facism etc be considered as religions in themselves ?

Or at least could they be considered a very close cousin to religion ?

I ask this because many theists attempt to show the "evilness" of atheism by saying communist russia was atheist.

While thinking about this I wondered if in fact religion had more in common with communism and facism.

Answer 1

yes it is called ideology,
it's exactly what you have described
i'm confident that being too much serious about somebody's atheism will lead eventually to a form of religion. You need moderation in everything.

Answer 2

Communism is not a religion, but the statist, totalitarian versions of communism in the 20th century shared with many organized religion the following ideas: (1) That the population's absolute and total obedience to a dogma or an idea is a virtue and a social value to be pursued (regardless of the dearth or total lack of real-world evidence in support of that dogma or idea); (2) That the capital T Truth is whatever the leaders say it is. (3) That the leader(s) (the president, premier, general secretary, or Politburo, etc.) are always right and have inherent authority to govern (This idea was shared by all other regimes based on the divine right of kings, which in turn drew a lot of its early support from offhand comments by Paul and others in the New Testament). Only in the above sense are dogma-based totalitarian systems "cousins" of religion. They certainly depend for their survival on the continued credulity and servility of the populace.

Answer 3

42

Answer 4

Most religion demands blinkered faith and so is
communism and facism. Do not try to find logic,
just believe what you are told is the common
'mantra'

Answer 5

purely from the political view point absolutely nothing the word communism was a misuse of the original meaning for political reason and fascism is just what it is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism
some clergy have called monestaries and nunneries pure communism they are communal living but not as political regimes or states distort it's meaning

Answer 6

You need a god to have a religion but otherwise you are right

Answer 7

well, they both try to dictate peoples sexual lives and regulate breeding