I’m just picturing what it would be like if the Atheist movement gained strength in western countries, a pipe dream I know, but I’m sure it would be radically different to Atheism in China and the former Soviet Union. I’m sick of the well worn response that believers keep bringing up that Atheism has already been tried and that it goes hand in hand with communism and oppression. But we western Atheists with our love of democracy and liberty wouldn’t let that happen, wouldn’t we?
2007-05-08 19:17:06 · 10 answers · asked by Desiree 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Not enough people have enough faith to believe there is no God to have a nation of atheism. It takes far more faith to believe there is no God than there is a God considering everything there is in this world.
2007-05-08 19:23:39 · answer #1 · answered by pizzandgrill 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
It is easy...they use it to attack the left. If they consider a country that is communist in name only and is really just fascism a communist country then they can use that too attack people on the left because that is all they have. Most people couldn't really say a whole lot bad about real true anti authoritarian communism but they want to say something bad about communism because some people think that anyone who they disagree with is a communist, so they use China and Russia as examples of communism. The funniest thing is when they call someone like me who is an anarchist, through and through and has been for a while, a communist because again they cannot grasp the concept but they can grasp the concept of Joseph Stalin brutally murdering 60 million people (or some number in between there) and they can also grasp that Stalin called himself a communist (though most rational people know that he wasn't one) A lot of this stuff comes out of the Red Scare from the 20s onward and people like Joe McCarthy and the John Birch Society and not from any rational thought. Sweeping generalizations are much easier than finding actual facts and breaking things down and explaining things in a civil manner.
2016-05-18 22:41:18 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't see "atheism" being different, because atheism has no set attributes, it is a lack of a particular belief. It is communism that has done what it has done in those nations, not atheism, the two philosophies have only a weak correlation, seeming to be more that communists adopt atheism than visa versa. Asking if atheism would be different in different cultures is like asking whether the lack of taoism in Zimbabwe is different from the lack of taoism in France, a lack of a belief shouldn't be generalized as to having one thought process.
Also, atheism isn't at all rare in western society, in fact it is more common in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Japan (which is for all intents and purposes western at this point), France, and Germany all have higher percentages of atheists than Russia.
England, the Netherlands, Canada, Israel (yes, Israel... Atheistic ethnic jews count), Australia, Spain, and Italy all have higher percentages of atheists than modern China. The US is the only industrialized western country with available statistics that has a lower percentage atheists than China does for that matter...
2007-05-08 19:32:24 · answer #3 · answered by yelxeH 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The thing with Atheism is there is no real movement. We atheist have various backgrounds and often differ in opinions. When an Atheistic group of people find similarities with each other it is not only Atheism that brings them together but other factors. I do oppose some groups which amongst other beliefs do not believe in a God.
I think the same thing can be said for Agnostic theists, they come in a wide variety with differing beliefs.
Even Christians have a wide degree of beliefs and as a result multiple denominations and non denominations develop. To me it seems that Christians often do have more in common with one another as the Bible is used as a universal text amongst them though.
2007-05-08 19:27:22 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm sorry, but it is religious belief that is oppressive... and repressive. It causes many more problems than non-belief ever could.
It takes no faith whatsoever to say "There is no god." All it takes is reason and logic and the ability to think for yourself. You must have tremendous faith (blind faith at that) to believe there is a being out there somewhere who made everything here rather than looking at the evidence that proves how it came to be... you know, the facts that science provides? Try it sometime.
I'll take knowledge over faith any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
2007-05-08 19:24:13 · answer #5 · answered by Rogue Scrapbooker 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
These people get atheism mixed up with marxism. The Soviet system was just another religion with Stalin as its all powerful god.
Atheism is not a way of life that follows any creed or dogma.
2007-05-08 22:04:16 · answer #6 · answered by brainstorm 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
More than that the atheists in western countries tend to be more educated and wealthier and most likely highly capitalistic.
2007-05-08 19:21:40 · answer #7 · answered by CC 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I really don't see how it will avoid it. Ethics follows ontology, and in ontology, what is all that different in killing a human than in cutting down a tree in the atheist paradigm? The only "value" we can differentiate them by is our preference, but we all know power corrupts...
2007-05-08 19:33:12 · answer #8 · answered by Innokent 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sweden and Finland have a majority of Atheists. I'd be thrilled to death to live there. They don't seem all that repressive.
2007-05-08 19:23:34 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Netherlands, Norway, Sweden are all mostly secular, liberal, and prosperous.
2007-05-08 23:53:22 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋