Theism and Atheism, Islam and Communism

Last updated on: November 8, 2019 at 11:29 pm by Dan Peterson

Theism and Atheism, Islam and Communism 2019-11-08T23:29:21-07:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

(Wikimedia CC public domain)
The cover of a magazine published in the Soviet Union during the 1920s by the government-sponsored League of the Militant Godless, showing the deities of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam being destroyed by the first Leninist Five Year Plan. It turns out that religious faith was a bit more resilient than idealistic Communists expected it to be.

I’ve been challenged repeatedly over the years by people attempting to equate Islam with Communism and/or Nazism, and by others, from a different perspective, who try to argue that Stalin and Mao and folks like that really weren’t atheists, or that their atheism had nothing to do with their programs of mass murder, and/or that Adolf Hitler was actually a devout Catholic and beloved of the Catholic Church, so that, once again, the Holocaust can be — as it must be! — laid at the feet of devout theists. And etc.

Good grief.

If religion would only disappear, we’d all live in peace, love, and brotherhood? Check out the historical record of such officially atheistic regimes as Stalin’s Russia, Mao’s China, Enver Hoxha’s Albania, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, and Castro’s Cuba, or, for that matter, of Citizen Robespierre’s revolutionary France, and try telling us that with a straight face. Hitler represents a more complex (and perhaps altogether incoherent) case, but certainly his dismissal of humankind as “a ridiculous cosmic bacterium” (ein lächerliches kosmisches Bakterium) doesn’t exactly scream orthodox Christianity, or even theism. (He seems to have been a Social Darwinist, having imbibed the ideology that, some are now arguing, also strongly colored the First World War in which Corporal Hitler served, as well as his own World War II.)

That crimes have been committed in the name of religion, and specifically in the name of Christianity, is a sad fact that I would never deny. But the mass murders and genocides of the twentieth century dwarf them all and were overwhelmingly committed by people who were explicit and insistent about their atheism (or, in the case of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, who were at the very most vaguely theistic but who were essentially pagan and deeply anti-Christian and merely used theistic language for occasional public relations purposes).

None of this proves theism true or atheism false, of course, although it does suggest that certain forms of atheism have been among the most powerful engines of evil in recorded history. And history shouldn’t be misrepresented for ideological advantage.

Previous Post

November 7, 2019

Why do Latter-day Saints tend to reject evolution?

Next Post

November 7, 2019 "Buried before they died"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In Philemon, what does Paul call Onesimus?

Select your answer to see how you score.

My friend My helper My very heart My brother