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No, it couldn't be. Surely, if atheist candidates were elected, then made up the Government, religion would still be "safe".

 

 

During the French Revolution, for the first time in history, a society delved into the prospect of an atheist state. After the Revolution, JacquesHebert, a radical revolutionary journalist, and Anacharsis Cloots, a politician, both anticlerical and atheist, had successfully campaigned for the proclamation of the atheistic  Cult of Reason, which was adopted by the French Republic on November 10, 1793.

 

Cloots maintained that "Reason" and "Truth" were "supremely intolerant" and that the daylight of atheism would make the lesser lights of religious night disappear. Reason, Truth, supreme, the rise of atheism making religion disappear? Ever seen these words on this forum?

The state then further pushed its campaign of dechristianization,  which included removal and destruction of religious objects from places of worship and the transformation of churches into "Temples of the Goddess of Reason", Once again, Reason.


Although brief, the French experiment was particularly notable for the influence upon atheists Ludwig Feuerbach (who called religion an opiate before  Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx.Using the ideas of Feuerbach, Marx and Freud, "communist" regimes latertreated religious believers as subversives or abnormal, sometimes relegated to psychiatric hospitals and reeducation. "Abnormal and psychotic"?


Karl Marx saw religion as the "opium of the people" in the sense that it gives illusory happiness; real happiness for Marx comes only when a worker controls the fruits of his own labor, which he says is achieved only in a communist society.


State atheism in Albania was taken to an extreme during the totalitarian regime installed after World War II, when religions, identified as imports foreign to Albanian culture, were banned altogether.


Religious institutions were forbidden to have anything to do with the education of the young, because that had been made the exclusive province of the state. All religious communities were prohibited from owning real estate and from operating philanthropic and welfare institutions and hospitals. Although there were tactical variations in Hoxha's approach to each of the major denominations, his overarching objective was the eventual destruction of all organized religion in Albania.


The campaign against religion peaked in the 1960s. Beginning in 1967 the Albanian authorities began a violent campaign to try to eliminate religious life in Albania. Despite complaints, even by APL members, all churches, mosques, monasteries, and other religious institutions were either closed down or converted into warehouses, gymnasiums, or workshops by the end of 1967. By May 1967, religious institutions had been forced to relinquish all 2,169 churches, mosques, cloisters, and shrines in Albania, many of which were converted into cultural centers for young people. As the literary monthly Nendori reported the event, the youth had thus "created the first atheist nation in the world."

 

The clergy were publicly vilified and humiliated, their vestments taken and desecrated. More than 200 clerics of various faiths were imprisoned, others were forced to seek work in either industry or agriculture, and some were executed or starved to death.

 

Article 37 of the Albanian Constitution of 1976 stipulated, "The State recognizes no religion, and supports atheistic propaganda in order to implant a scientific materialistic world outlook in people.", and the penal code of 1977 imposed prison sentences of three to ten years for "religious propaganda and the production, distribution, or storage of religious literature." A new decree that in effect targeted Albanians with Christian names stipulated that citizens whose names did not conform to "the political, ideological, or moral standards of the state" were to change them. It was also decreed that towns and villages with religious names must be renamed. Hoxha's brutal antireligious campaign succeeded in eradicating formal worship, but some Albanians continued to practice their faith clandestinely, risking severe punishment. Individuals caught with Bibles, icons, or other religious objects faced long prison sentences. Religious weddings were prohibited.

 

Parents were afraid to pass on their faith, for fear that their children would tell others. Officials tried to entrap practicing Christians and Muslims during religious fasts, such as Lent and Ramadan, by distributing dairy products and other forbidden foods in school and at work, and then publicly denouncing those who refused the food, and clergy who conducted secret services were incarcerated.


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

cte

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Religion is bad news and leads to many of the worlds great conflicts, as evidenced by the quagmire in the middle east. Religion has no place in government or in the public schools. Religious indoctrination should be between parent and child.

 

Atheism should be the over riding principle when it comes to government, with no religious fantasy tolerated.

Originally Posted by Opie Cunningham:

Religion is bad news and leads to many of the worlds great conflicts, as evidenced by the quagmire in the middle east. Religion has no place in government or in the public schools. Religious indoctrination should be between parent and child.

 

Atheism should be the over riding principle when it comes to government, with no religious fantasy tolerated.

 

 

 

 

Albania would be your cup of tea then, Troll.

 

cte

Originally Posted by Opie Cunningham:

Religion is bad news and leads to many of the worlds great conflicts, as evidenced by the quagmire in the middle east. Religion has no place in government or in the public schools. Religious indoctrination should be between parent and child.

 

Atheism should be the over riding principle when it comes to government, with no religious fantasy tolerated.

It worked so well in the former Soviet Union. How about Communist China?

Mind you we have a  Moslem Socialist/ bordering on Moslem Communist in the White House right now.

I agree Ope, we need to get religion out of the White House. We will work very hard to grant your wish. With our new Republican President after the next election, we will be able to focus on the Economy and Jobs. Will throw those prayer rugs in the White House Dumpster.

Skippy





Originally Posted by skippy delepepper:
Originally Posted by Opie Cunningham:

Religion is bad news and leads to many of the worlds great conflicts, as evidenced by the quagmire in the middle east. Religion has no place in government or in the public schools. Religious indoctrination should be between parent and child.

 

Atheism should be the over riding principle when it comes to government, with no religious fantasy tolerated.

It worked so well in the former Soviet Union. How about Communist China?

Mind you we have a  Moslem Socialist/ bordering on Moslem Communist in the White House right now.

I agree Ope, we need to get religion out of the White House. We will work very hard to grant your wish. With our new Republican President after the next election, we will be able to focus on the Economy and Jobs. Will throw those prayer rugs in the White House Dumpster.

Skippy



When Skippy has nothing, he just makes thing up. He is the Ann Coulter of the TD Forum.

Originally Posted by Opie Cunningham:

Religion is bad news and leads to many of the worlds great conflicts, as evidenced by the quagmire in the middle east. Religion has no place in government or in the public schools. Religious indoctrination should be between parent and child.

 

Atheism should be the over riding principle when it comes to government, with no religious fantasy tolerated.

Tell us about all the peace that Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Uncle Adolf, and other atheists have brought to their people. 

Being an atheist, I have read all the rantings with interest.  I just want to be left alone with my lack of god and not having everyone turn into a Borg and start waving tentacles trying to assimilate me into a baptist religeon. You christoholics try moving to Utah where the local kids won't play with your kids because they are not Mormons.

Sez the pachyderm:

 

"Using the ideas of Feuerbach, Marx and Freud, "communist" regimes latertreated religious believers as subversives or abnormal....."

 

Oh! Ya mean sorta kinda like our new Gov. Bentley said?

 

 

"If you’re a Christian and if you’re saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister.

 

“Now I will have to say that, if we don’t have the same daddy, we’re not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.”

 

 

Who the f$#& elected this GZ?  Oh...yeah.....All the other GZs... Nevermind.

 

Same idea, just the other way around...

 

I'm with rimshot on this issue.

 

 

Speaking only for THIS atheist (and every atheist I personally know), the government should have NO ROLE in how a people worship or not worship.  Yes, I would love for all Americans to adopt reason, science and humanistic principals as their moral and political basis but I cannot imagine forcing it upon people.

"Reason" is not something you force on someone.  It is a skill that is acquired through constant questioning of ones most cherished beliefs.  Most people are simply unable (through lack of education, early brainwashing, just plain stupid) to use reason as a tool any more than I could use a scalpel for brain surgery.  It is a discipline that take years to master and when you think you ahve it mastered, you better check again but you can't master it.

Yes, the history of this world is ripe with ideologies that have caused great harm.  Science was used to develop the atom bomb.  Darwinistic principles were used as justification to enslave people as were biblical principals.  Tools can and will be misused for all sorts of human follies.

But I do contend that one cannot think too rationally.  I WISH Americans would THINK more but it will not happen by force,  It will happen by and for the people.  

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