Atheists how did you feel when the Soveit Union collapsed?

Question

Could you answer before this question gets pulled out ?(The ACLU has a lot of influence).Do you still want a state of your own? I mean getting thrashed by the Taliban,Cmon!That was no David and Goliath ;more like a mouse and a Godzilla defeat.Don't distance yourself now:you know the usual excuses we are not like them.The Soviets were primarily atheists.What say you?Keep it fair now !

So Christians and Muslims are Atheists huh?

Xeibeg let's get this straight, you prefer the USSR to the USA?

Puppy you are a typical atheist ,read a bit more about Mao and Pol Pot .

Answer 1

There were more Believers in the former Soviet Union than born again Christians in the USA. Some of us atheist, international socialists were working to set up independent workers' trade unions in the Eastern Bloc years before the USSR collapsed. As for a separate, atheist state - no. A worldwide, truly democratic, humanist socialist society - yes!

Answer 2

Just because the barely held [by forceof arms] union of Soviet Russian affiliate states collapsed, doesn't mean the people were inferior in understanding and belief, so to pass any judgement would be based on ignorant, or at least only partially true, assumptions.

and...

Just to clear something up of what has been asserted above, not directly of the question: Agnostic simply means don't believe in any God(s), because they make no assumption of knowledge of what they can't prove, while atheists insist there isn't any God(s) based on their own unprovable notions.

Agnostics tend to be honest enough to admit what they don't know by very definition, and therefore follow the most important practice of religion which is to be truthful,. That's something more Theists and Atheist should do - in fact, it is all important to both science and religion, without which is all superstition, and fancy.

I'm theist, Baha'i.

Answer 3

What on Earth are you on about?

I was on the whole happy, because from what we in the west saw of Soviet Russia it was a very oppressive place. Almost like a theocracy in fact!

What has it got to do with atheism? So the USSR had no official state religion? Well guess what - neither does the USA! In fact, the founding fathers of the US, mostly agnostics, went to great lengths to make sure that was in the Constitution!

So I guess I really can not make sense of your question!

Answer 4

Er.. I dont think I was even born when it collapsed! But there are some parts to communism that I agree with. Wait Wait! Before you go giving me a thumbs down I said SOME parts( everybody having equal wealth etc..) whats not good about it is the corruption.
And why yes I would love my own State!

Answer 5

I was thrilled when the corrupt USSR collapsed - and I'm a left wing atheist - but very worried about the effect it would have on the people of the region.

Don't understand why you're talking about the USSR and atheism though. Very religious people, by and large, whether Orthodox or Muslim.

Answer 6

ha ha ha you have no idea how wrong you are. The Russians are primarily Orthodox Church (that is, Christians) with a large group of Muslims. Have you any idea how BIG it is? Russia stretches across some 8 time zones. You should go back to school and learn about the differences between religion and ideology.

Go out in the world and live a little.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Orthodox_church

Answer 7

I am baffled what is the connection between Atheists and the Soviet Union except that some Russians are atheists butt that applies to any country

Answer 8

A poorly posed question, no doubt from a creationist. The fall of the USSR, does not IN ANY WAY alter the fact that Christianity is a sham. With or without the USSR there is STILL not one shred of evidence to support supernatural, invisible beings. I suggest you study more European history and less biblical fiction.

Answer 9

I'm not an atheist....more an agnostic, but your question demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of what Russian Communism was about.

Have you ever considered the sheer size of the former USSR?

It went from North Western Europe, right across 8 time zones and coming to a halt just short of Canada's NW shoreline, and where the sea freezes, and it is possible to walk (perilously) from one continent to another.

Forget the cultural and religious origins for a moment, and look instead at the faces of the people of the former USSR. They ranged from the European Slavic appearence, to the Arab features of Central Asia, right through to the "Chinese" look of the Mongolians.

This was a communist experiment which started in Moscow in the far west, which travelled brutally and successfully across Central; Asia (only a few miles north of Iraq and Afghanistan) into the sweeping, wild plains of Mongolia (to the north and northwest of China).

It also embraced lands which go almost the top of the Earth and the northern ice-cap, yet as far south as Georgia, which enjoys a semi-tropical climate. Geogrpahically, the former USSR included desert lanscapes, arctic landscapes and vast mountain ranges close to the height of the Himalayas.

The USSR, like England today, had to be governed in a completely non-religious way; largely due to the social divisions of both culture and religious belief. However, that is not unique, because the Turks have done that for years, and China (still a communist state) still does.

Any one groups of people who roll across vast territories and subjegate whole swathes of land and people of such diverse ethnic and religios origins, cannot side with any one particular religion or way of life. After all, it is important to remember that faith is what often DIVIDES people like no-other.

The Russian Communists (essentially a Slavic people), therefore "re-educated" regionally ethnic people and indoctrinated them against specific articles of faith, which they rightly recognised as being divisive and potentially explosive. As in all great social experiments, it was "Mother Russia" who had to dominate......but then....not really......

I know quite a lot about classical music, and in Central Asia, the Russians set up great schools and universities, to educate people into Russian ways. However, being communists, they believed (probably quite rightly, as the Jesuits did) that cultural-change can only be achieved when it comes from the "grass-roots" of indigenous people.

Thus, the Russians sent composers and scholars to study the ethnic music of Central Asia, and then set about trying to teach them "western" music. What they ended up with, was music which mixed Turc folk-music or Cossack dances with the musical language of Shostakovich ....in other words, a creative compromise.

Did the communist experiement work as the Russians expected?

Probably not, because the locals didn't change their ways or their beliefs. Instead, it was the communists who, like the music, adapted and accomodated; at the same time bringing economic, social, educational, scientific and medical development to these far-flung regions, which had not changed very much for a thousand years.

In fact, the whole experiment was possibly a ridiculously optimistic one, because no one country and no one system of government can control such a vast and diverse range of people, which also included the very catholic satellite states of Poland and the Ukraine; not to mention the slightly more diverse areas of the former Czechoslovakia, Hungary and East Germany (among others).

It is such a huge subject, and so incredibly complex, space does not permit a fuller answer: which in any case, could take up a whole lifetime of study.

Nevertheless, here in the UK we have a complex mix of religions and ethnicity....possibly a society on the edge of social collapse in some ways.

In the past few years, we have seen a huge influx of people from the former communist countries of Poland (especially), as well as Slovakia, Lithuania and Latvia.

It is very interesting to note that they are usually courteous, educated, charming, hard-working, friendly and, perhaps most significantly, staunchly catholic. The more intelligent among them are also superbly educated.

There was something vaguely amusing, and perhaps almost miraculous about the humble and very ordinary Polish truck-driver who drew my attention to the 16th century Polish musician "Jan of Lublin" as one of the founding fathers of European music.

It turned out that he was absolutely correct in every detail!

Of course, in the not too distant future, the former USSR will be largely a Muslim region, but worry not, for they are generally a gentler, truer and wiser branch of Islam, who will probably teach their former Russian masters a thing or two about tolerance and forgiveness. After all, they've been there for well over a thousand years!

So read on, and then come back with a better question when you know more about it. :)

Answer 10

I was sorry when Soviet Union collapsed .And I am not a atheist . I am a Muslim . I was sorry because one big power left in the world and it is USA . And there is no fairness in the world because of this between east and west .