Should Communism be given more time to prove itself?

Question

Communism lasted 74 years in Europe. Is that enough time for a fair test?

If not, then I should point out that Christianity has been given 2000 years to show what it can do, and here's the result:

The Destruction of Classical Civilization.

The Dark Ages.

The Crusades.

The Inquisition.

The Thirty Years' War.

Witch Hunts.

Jesus said, "By their fruits shall you know them. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit." By this standard, Christianity is a bad tree, and should be, as Jesus said, cut down and tossed into the fire.

Isn't it time we all gave up on Christianity? Why should it get any more time than 200 years?

Answer 1

I certainly agree it's trial period is over, and any progress humanity has made has required battling the church at every turn, and still does. Plus now we have the new crop of medievalists in Islam taking the place of the Christian "back to the caves" crowd. It's a shame the movement became about worshipping Jesus as an avatar and destroying those who don't, instead of taking his revolutionary message, the Kingdom of heaven is among you, to heart. What we have today has nothing to do with the real Jesus and everything to do with the one Paul and others who'd never met him or heard him invented.

Answer 2

Communism on a large scale will not work. Too many power-hungry individuals take advantage of the system and become dictators or the communist states. It has happened in every large scale communistic society (Cuba, USSR, North Korea, Vietnam, PR China, and soon Venezuela). These leaders empower their people at first to incite a rebellion by either political or violent means using the idea of communism as a catalyst, and then take the power away from the people once the leader is securely in power.

Communism on a small scale can work because everyone knows everyone, and no one has a chance to be the absolute dictator person. It does work in places like Mexico.

I don't see your logic in comparing a religion to a political ideal. Theocracy tried to fill a vacuum and gave some order, but the truth remained that those forms of government (ie vassal states, monarchies) were condusive to war. Warring factions used religion to declare war, just like terrorists do today. That doesn't mean that christianity is an evil entity, it was twisted and used to meet people's objectives. It still happens today.

Answer 3

Destruction of Classical Civilization - was due to internal decadence and the breakdown of civil society. The rise of Christianity was a symptomic response of this breakdown, not the cause.

Dark Ages - Was the natural result of the downfall of the roman empire and the destruction wrought by outside invaders - not to mention climatological changes that made life more difficult. It could be well argued that it was the church that kept european society going during these times.

The Crusades - The Crusades were a response to external Islamic aggression. Yes, some of the Crusaders committed atrocities against uninvolved populations, but when one has poorly trained, undisciplined armies marching over 1000 miles, untoward things will happen.

The rest: well, nobody's perfect.

By and large, the rise of christianity has been the most positive development in world history over the last 2 millenia. Christians have spread civilization around the world...yes, sometimes it got ugly, but hardly in comparison to what was already there. If it weren't for the Christian you'd probably be bowing down to some pile of rocks right now or worse, enslaved to some self-appointed chief or most likely, your ancestors would never have been born....and neither would you.

Answer 4

Communism looks like it is dead in the water right now.

People stuck to Christianity, because it seemed to "work" for them, while Communism did not.

Christianity gave us the first hospitals, orphanages, nursing homes, the concept of human rights for the common people, the concept of the University, the idea of universal literacy (to encourage Bible reading), most anti-slavery movements in England & American were lead by Christians, Woman’s suffrage started out as a movement in Christianity, the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. was started out by the Baptist Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and the congregation of Ebenezer Baptist Church, and many others. Try the fist link below.

Communism killed billions of people, and seemed to give nothing back. See the article at the second link. Apparently all of these communists died for noithing.

Answer 5

Christianity is a religion, communism is a governmental style. They have nothing to do with each other. Communism flat out doesn't work unless you are a bee or an ant. Humans can not function in a communistic society because of our greed and lazyness.

By the way, the six anti Christian events you listed were also all politically motivated by people who manipulated the church to their own personal benefit.

Answer 6

No it is not time to give up on Christianity; we simply need to put the teachings of Jesus above greed and human ambition. If we ever decide to try that, everything will change.

Incidentally, I think the only way that Communism stands a chance of working would be in a society that seeks God first and is therefore willing to share all work and live in harmony with all. Remove God, the quest for Spiritual understanding, it won’t work because if man is not seeking God he is seeking his own selfish ambitions.

Answer 7

That wasn't communism, at least not how Marx envisioned it. Lenninism, which is what the rest developed from, combines the capitalist principles of JP Taylor and Marx.

Marx wrote...and I quote..."A man can be a fishman one day, and a carpenter the next"

Despite that....I think Marxism is laregly irrelevant. Where Marx clearly went wrong is in judging a societie's ability to adapt. He in short thought they'd hit crises and fold. Our society hit crises, and adapted. The FDR adminstration is evidence of that. We made Marxist compromises with Capitalism in order to prserve the system.

The missing link that Marx didn't see was the Republic/Educated (benevolent) leadership that would...in a pinch...act in the interests of the organization rather then its specific class. He didn't understand how our system...and Democracy...would allow capitalism to adapt.

Answer 8

On paper, Communism is the best form of government.
In practice, however, it falls well short of expectations.

My recommendation: Go to the library and read Animal Farm by George Orwell. It's a pretty good discussion on the shortcomings of the Communist system.

Answer 9

1)Christianity isn't a form of government and shouldn't be (separation of church and state ring a bell?) and 2) Under the regime of Stalin alone millions of innocent people were slaughtered at the hands of the government, not to mention all of the oppression of the people and stripping of basic freedoms (like free speech and religion) Communism doesn't work and won't ever work.

Answer 10

Christianity and Communism have also done some good. It's not all one-sided. I believe in Democracy and keeping religion private, out of government.