Why do some people think that atheism equals communism?

Question

I quite often see people referring to Mao, Stalin, Lenin, etc in a bid to show how bad atheists are. These people were communists, not atheists. They killed in the name of communism, not atheism.
So why do people continually equate the two?

If you need an example of this look at the first answer to this question:
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=An9p1jpDgK5bd3OFz6RQG2JFLxV.;_ylv=3?qid=20071031101700AAlLLg0

Skalite - yeh, I needed something horrible for Halloween!!! (only kidding . . .)

Answer 1

Part of this is a misconception, part of it is "return fire."

The misconception is the equating all of Atheism with Communism. Although atheism does play an important role in Communism, to equate all Atheists with Communists is a logical fallacy.

However, i should point out immediately that many Atheists play the same game when talking about Religion, Theism, or the Christianity.

The general discussion usually runs about enumerating the crimes of Christianity (without making any differentiation as to what sort of Christianity they are addressing and lumping them altogether) vis-a-vis Atheism. However its incorrect to compare to the two. Christianity is a specific type of Theism with an Agenda, whereas Atheism represents more of a Category (which is why it has no agenda).

The only appropriate thing to do is to compare it to another Category (in other words Theism). Theism, the general belief in a god, is also Agenda-less because it does not talk about specifics about what this god-belief entails.

In this respect, Communism can be seen as only one amongst a number of responses to the "Post-God" question. IE: "So there's no God. Now what?"

It is by no means the only response, the type of Secular Liberal Humanism advocated by say the Society for Ethical Culture is another response. Nietzschean Moral Relativism can be seen as yet another response. So can Trans-humanism.

Why do they choose an option that is seen as a negative amongst a lot of people on this planet? Simple: A lot of atheists choose the worst examples of Christianity or Religion in general and take them to be defining features of the whole tradition.

So they do the same thing in turn.

Will this stop? Of course not.

Does it really matter? - No.

I'm sure there are a lot of atheists and theists on Yahoo Answers who don't do such things, who don't bother even enter into R&S because the debate about religion isn't even a major component to their lives. To them, we're just wasting time better spent on other important issues in life.

Answer 2

It's odd, especially when you could make a case the other way, and that true Christianity should exhibit communistic principles (Acts 4:32-35)

Although it's not dificult to find atheistic communists, there are plenty of atheistic capitalists too.
There's no incompatibility.
And in the context of liberation theology, you can find extreme socialist priests who would count as communists by most usages of the term (but not, obviously, if atheism is taken as part of the definition!)

A few more lessons on Venn diagrams required in schools?

Answer 3

Ah diddums!

Atheists love to dish it out about the shortcomings of religion, but they can't take it when the shortcomings of atheism are pointed out.

Trendy left-wingers, champagne socialists and communists in the West, tried to disown the communist states, when they collapsed by claiming that these states were not really communist.

Now we have the atheists claiming that the self-proclaimed atheist, communist states were not really atheist. - - - deja vu or what?

But I am afraid, protest as they may, it is a fact that all the communist regimes declared themselves to be atheist. They all persecuted religious believers and destroyed churches in the name of atheism. They made churches into museums and warehouses. They taught atheism in schools and they all proclaimed the gospel of 'scientific materialism'.

What is more, the founder of communism, the atheist Karl Marx declared that religion is the opium of the people.

If you want an more you can have it, this should do for starters.

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Answer 4

Because the communist regime in the former Soviet union were the first ones in modern history to get rid of openly practiced religion. Add to this the weight of Western propoganda, and you get widespread misinformation which affects people down to this day. Post Hoc Ergo Procter Hoc.

Answer 5

I think it is an ignorance as to the importance that atheism plays in Communist thought, although important as it is one of the chief tenets of it due to Karl Marx's statement about it being the Opium of the masses it is not the reason that these men committed the pogroms and the atrocities in China. I do not equate atheism with Communists like the men you mention but I do equate evil with them. They should look to Hitler who claimed to be a Christian.

Answer 6

In all seriousness, weren't the above mentioned *also* atheists? It's misleading to say they were *only* communists.

But that certainly doesn't mean that *all* atheists are communists. That's a total logical fallacy. All communists may be atheists (probably not true either, but hey, for the sake of argument) but that doesn't make all atheists communists.

P.S. The early church was *communalist* --- not communist. :)

Answer 7

Atheism was (and still is) an integral part of communism. And it was this belief in atheism that enables communism to make The State a god of sorts.

It's only then that communist regimes can give themselves carte blanche to treat their people as badly as they wish. Only when God is taken out of the picture can human atrocity reach the level that communists regime took it to.

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Answer 8

It helps to demonize the word. A truly atheistic (by the base meaning of the word) government would be religiously neutral. It would neither show preference to nor restrict religious belief. It isn't that an atheist government has been tried and failed it's just never been tried.

Answer 9

Well, communists are often atheists. Of course many atheists are not communists... so that's part of the weirdness of the argument. But then again, many communists are not mass murderers, so yeah... the whole thing's kinda fishy.

Answer 10

I'm a atheist and a die hard capitalist , people shouldn't be so judgemental without knowing the facts , communists were evil.