As is often the case when discussing atheism versus religion, a predictable knee jerk response is to bring up the likes of Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, and Pol Pot as an example of murderous atheists. (As was the case in this thread)
Instead of hi-jacking the above thread completely, I thought perhaps this could be a topic for discussion on its own thread. Hopefully we can settle this argument once and for all (being optimistic here). What follows is my opinion on the subject.
Personally I couldn’t confirm if Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, or Pol Pot were atheists. It is assumed they were atheists because they were communists, and everyone knows a communist is an atheist…or do we?
If you study the works of Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels, you will find that there is no declaration of communism being an atheist movement. There is simply no philosophical/theological discussion, thought, or opinion whether there is a God or not. Rather, it seems to me they were simply looking at religion, and specifically Christianity, on a more clinical and historical sense.
Now that is interesting. Indeed if you read the passage closely, it could be read as if they are saying there will be no religion in a communist government. If you put such a spin on those words, then it starts to look similar to the first amendment of the US constitution.
More to the point though, if you read the Communist Manifesto, you’ll find Marx and Engels spend a miniscule portion on the topic of religion. Except for a few additional words here and there where the Pope is lumped with the Tsar as an oppressor, the above five paragraphs is all that is given to the question of religion in the communist manifesto. To claim from this that atheism is the underlying message of communism is a gross exaggeration. The manifesto and other writings by Marx and Engels is frankly a tedious read on workers rights and the equalization of property to the state for the benefit of the workers. The rejection of religion is a rejection of another branch of the oppressors of the proletariat, and they spend less than 1% of the manifesto on this. There is absolutely no mention of atheism or the declaration there of.
Just to drive this point home, the following are the first ten steps once a communist government establishes itself in a given nation:
There is nothing regarding religion or the abolition there of in the first 10 steps of a new communist nation. (I confess to even agreeing to item 10 to a certain extent.)
The thing about Marx and Engel’s works, if you read through it, is that they did have some interesting ideas, ideas that spread to the Western democracies in America and Europe. Workers rights movements lead to unions and ultimately better working conditions and wages for millions of people. Not that I am pro-union today, but I could imagine being pro-union back at the turn of the century when workers truly were exploited. Women’s suffrage movement was also influenced by the communist doctrines. Indeed, I find it comical how Marx and Engels actually speak of “Free Love”. Sounds almost like they were hippies, and this in a document published in 1848!
The point is, I think we can safely say that the communist Utopia as imagined by Marx and Engels was probably very different from the communist nations that eventually appeared. Neither Marx nor Engels lived to see the birth of the Soviet Union, wonder what they would have thought of Stalin?
Which brings us to the three notorious despots, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Tung and Pol Pot. What happened? How could these megalomaniacs get to be so powerful?
In my opinion, there was a major flaw in the communist ideology. Again, when you read the manifesto, once a nation becomes communist, they don’t allow for any other political opinion or thought.
It certainly sounds ideal and incredibly naïve. “Power” didn’t disappear, as was predicted, it concentrated. The prediction that communism would eventually lack “political character” made the need for “checks and balances” to be implemented in such a government redundant. Since there was no checks and balances designed in to the communist system of government, what eventually emerged, once the experiment came to fruit in the Soviet Union and elsewhere, was a concentration of power amongst a very few. It started to look a lot more like an absolute monarchy rather than a brotherhood of labourers. The problem with absolute monarchy, unless you’re the king, is that the state of the nation and the well being of the population is determined by the mental disposition of the ruler. Depending on your luck as a peasant, you could be living in terror under Ivan the Terrible or relative enlightenment under Elizabeth I. The power concentration found in the communist nation proved to allow for the same exact problem as was found in an absolute monarchy. Ironically, instead of the anticipated Utopia, communism just ended up replacing one set of oppressors with another.
Let’s turn our focus on what was going on within these communist regimes, more specifically the Soviet Union. It is true that Stalin persecuted leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church. But his motives was not religious or “atheist” as the case may be, but purely political. Remember, when the communists took over, the Tsar and his family were executed together with other people classified as the Bourgeoisie (the oppressors), and as the manifesto teaches us, the church leaders were included under the category of “oppressors” of the proletariat. Well, there Stalin had his excuse to pursue what he probably felt was a real threat to his power. Simply put, the church had some sway over the Russian people, and it was a threat to Stalin’s rule in particular and the communist government in general. So, the religious leaders were persecuted. It would be wrong to assume that religion in the Soviet Union disappeared completely, (the re-emergence of the ROC after the collapse of the Soviet Union shows it was alive and well), what was deconstructed was official organized religion within the Soviet Union. Realistically, it wouldn’t be possible to stamp out individual religious sentiments. Although I’m sure they tried. With the elimination of the organized church, the Soviets started the indoctrination of the people. The Red Book replaced the Bible, and in a sense, the state, with the father figure images of Lenin and Stalin became a new sort of religion. And like religion, it was a brainwash where intolerance (and ignorance) of the capitalist west was taught and indoctrinated, especially in younger minds.
Did Stalin murder a huge number of Soviet citizens? Yes, that is undeniable.
Did he do it in the name of atheism? No, he did it in the name of communism.
Was communism an atheist movement? No, it was a political movement, where abolition of organized religion was a minor part of the whole movement.
Why does atheism seem to rise to the top of people’s conscience when communism is discussed or mentioned? Interesting question, which leads us to the next topic.
Where did this image of the evil of communism and the emphasis of atheism in that mix come from in the West, especially the United States?
I have an opinion on this as well. Allow me to elaborate.
McCarthyism. Need I say more? Perhaps I should.
The McCarthy witch-hunts of the 1950’s caused some considerable hysteria in the United States. In this climate, it gave the American religious leaders a soapbox to stand on. And they were quick to paint the red brush over atheism and with it, secularism. It is no coincidence that “under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, or the words “In God We Trust” added to paper money in 1955, and those same words replaced the “E Pluribus Unum” as the national motto in 1956.
The McCarthy hunt for “Godless communists” created a strong religious affirmation and started an undercurrent of Christian fundamentalism in a nation that had been mostly secular, at least at the government level.
Basically, you could blame communism for the US government becoming religious.
You’d think the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 would have had a re-emergence of secularism in the United States. Indeed, I think it did, especially during the Clinton presidency. Clinton’s re-election for a second term despite the Lewinsky scandal, was to me a clear sign that secularism was back on the rise in the US. That is, until the unfortunate events of 9/11, 2001. Needless to say, it was a field day for the religious right. The Godless Commies were gone, but here suddenly we have the re-emergence of Christianity’s most ancient historical enemy.
To conclude, religion, or the lack there of, in the communist movement was actually only a very small aspect of the ideology. Religious indoctrination of the people was replaced with communist indoctrination. No freedom of thought, as would be required to be a free thinker. The cold war hysteria contributed to the exaggeration of communism being an atheist rather than a political movement and is also the cause for religious penetration into a government previously constitutionally free of religion.
Okay, there you have my opinion, long winded as it is.
Look forward to seeing some thoughts on this.
Jack
