Updated: 03/15/05
CHAPTER 19
*(This chapter was written by 1989 before the USSR
dissolved its union. The information on the concepts of Russian Atheism presented
here are both interesting and important to our understanding of what Atheism
really is and how it works. Added notes appear in brackets.)
If Atheism is the philosophy of freedom, why is
godless Russia a dictatorship? Before dealing with this question, I would like
to point out some very revealing facts.
First,
it is interesting to note the countries that readily and most easily fall to
communism are those countries that have been completely religious. Why is this?
To understand this we must identify communism and religion by using their True
descriptions, which more clearly defines them. For the word “communism”
substitute the true descriptive word "Authoritarianism.” For the word
“religious” substitute true descriptive the word "Gullibility," which
more closely describes them. Now the mystery unravels.
Communism
and fascism are the most authoritarian forms of government known to man, not
counting ancient kings. The government of communism rules by executive decree.
(Any people governed by Executive Decrees Are in a Dictatorship.) What the
government says today has little or no weight on what that same government may
say tomorrow. It may, and has in fact, said the exact opposite. Life under such
a government is almost impossible for a Clear Thinker. The popular position on
an issue today may be the outlawed position tomorrow, for which position one
could be jailed - or worse.
The
brain washing propaganda of communism, however, is far different from its
actual manner of rule. For instance, communism promises to take care of all
people under its rule. It promises national and personal security. The
propaganda says the sick will be taken care of, the poor will be fed and housed
and everyone will be given reasonable employment. Everyone will be educated.
Everyone will be clothed. Now that sounds great doesn't it? In short, communism
promises cradle to grave security for everyone Except Enemies of the State. Who
are the enemies? Anyone they say! Even those classified as friends or enemies
can change from day to day.
Now
who would fall for that hook and line? Only the most gullible of people would
fall for it. Only the lazy would listen to it. Only those who had been taught
that they could get "something for nothing" will be swept up by
communism. Only those who have been fed fear and guilt will fall for it. Only
those gullible people who believe in miracles will believe such incredible
nonsense.
Where
can the communists find people credulous and gullible enough who will believe
their unbelievable claims? Where can they locate people whose ability to think
has been sapped by generations of authoritarian decrees? They will find them
only in those countries that have been the most religious. They will find
fertile ground for their brain washing only in those countries where the people
have been taught to believe what the Bible, what the church leaders and what
the leaders of the government says is true. They will find fertile ground for
communist propaganda where people have been told they can get something for
nothing; where they have been told what they must believe, where they are
forbidden to think or question the statements and claims of their leaders. To
ask honest questions, or to seek honest answers, will put such repressed people
at risk of losing their eternal salvation - and almost as often, their freedom
or their lives.
A
person whose mind just says, "Yes, Sir" and does what he is asked to
do, simply transfers his weakness to believe from one authority, the church, to
another authority the communist propaganda and government. People who believe
in the unfounded claims of religion will easily believe in the unfounded claims
of the communist government, or in any government. The communists (and the
Republicans) know this, and therefore, they direct much of their efforts in
trying to get highly religious people to revolt against their former
authorities. Highly religious people are Always easy to lead into war,
revolution and destruction. They lack common sense and the ability to honestly
think and evaluate the lies that are told to them. If their authorities tell
them war is God's will, they will fight and die - gladly.
The
secret is the present leaders of highly religious countries also know the
weakness of the people to believe. They have already been using this weakness
of the people to believe what is told them by their authorities. Thus, they can
expand their power and build up their personal wealth at the expense of the
believers. (Does this sound like your present?) For the people, this usually means
poverty, unjust laws, lack of opportunity and fear of the present leaders.
Communism comes along with some new promises of “something for nothing” and
these religious believers jump at it.
Here
is another interesting fact. Any authoritarian dictatorship seeks to keep its
own plans and activity secret while spying on every person, every organization
and every gathering of people under its rule. The biggest internal threats to
any secular government are the media and the religious authorities present in
the country's midst. (Note what is happening with the fundamentalists and
Republicans in the USA.) Dictatorships Must control the media and they do this
by buying it up, or punishing those who insist on being truthful. They Must
also control the religious leaders. Many governments get around religious
opposition by making the strongest religion, or the religion that the
government can most easily control, into a type of official religion of the
country. They give money, pass laws and issue Executive Decrees to support that
religion.
However,
in Russia before the revolution, the main enemy of the people Was religion.
This is true in most highly religious countries. It was the authority of the
church that supported and kept the Tsars and ruling class in power (also think
USA). It was the league between religion and state that kept the peasants
fearful, poor, ignorant, hungry, cold and in a state of hopelessness. The
church and state were so interwoven in Tsarist Russia it was imperative that
they had to fall together. The communists determined that they needed to cut
off the head and power of both the state and the church. (What will happen in
the US when the people get enough of repression?)
In
addition to killing and/or imprisoning the church leaders, the church property,
which was vast, became state property. It forbade the church to publicly teach
its doctrines. Seeing the evils done to the people by the church, the communist
government sought to discredit the church, not only politically, but also doctrinally.
In other words, the state sought to expose the weakness, deceptions and wrongs
of the church at its heart, at the doctrines and beliefs of the church. Thus,
the communistic government began to use the proofs of Atheism to disarm the
church at its power base. They did this by proving that the teachings and
doctrines of the church were false.
So,
Atheism in Russia is not true Atheism. Russia borrowed the “Conclusions” of
Atheism without borrowing the scholarship and the scientific methods of Clear
Thinking. Atheism in Russia is an official decree that is purely and simply an
attack upon the beliefs and faiths of religion in Russia. Russians are still
asked to Believe and have faith in communism. They would also think and
question only at their peril. Thinking would be to risk one's life and future.
One never knows what the official position is at the moment. There is little
more Atheism in Russia than there is in the United States. In essence, the
communists have simply sought to substitute the belief in communism for their
former belief in God and church.
It
is true: the communists use many of the Conclusions and Proofs brought forth by
Atheism against religion. But these proofs against religion are Also proofs
that any Honest Clear Thinking person could easily work out for himself and
apply to the government. The communists did not work them out for themselves.
Rather, they borrowed the proofs and conclusions of the Atheists and used these
proofs against religion to vilify the church instead of being honest and
specific about it, as would an Atheist.
Many
of the same proofs against religion also hold up as proofs against communism,
or any dictatorship. Communism cannot prove in any way that communism is better
for people than are the freedoms to think, to act and to expect justice.
Neither do the communist demands for belief and obedience differ, nor set it
apart from the same demands that religion puts forward. Communism has simply
replaced religion as the boss of Russia.
If
Russia were an Atheistic nation, they would ask their people to think and work
the religious and political things out for themselves. Instead, they ask the
people Not to think, but rather, to believe what the government says about
politics, religion, God and the church. A Clear Thinker Never asks people to
believe him. He confidently asks people to honestly check for themselves and
verify the truthfulness of his conclusions.
My
conclusion is Russia is not at all Atheistic. Rather, Russia is anti church and
anti religion. In no stretch of imagination or terminology could Russia, or the
communist party, be classified as Honest Clear Thinkers. If one cannot be
classified as a Clear Thinker, he is Not classified as an Atheist. As we have
seen, the philosophy of Atheism is not properly described by the term
"Atheism," or as "One who does not believe in God." Only
the title "Clear Thinker, or Honest Free Thinker" can properly
describe the philosophy of life called Atheism by the religious.
RUSSIA IS ANTI-THEIST, NOT A-THEIST.
So
we look at our first question, "If Atheism is the philosophy of freedom,
why is Atheistic Russia a dictatorship?" We see the question will have to
be asked differently. Russia is not an Atheistic country in any sense.
Communism is an anti-theist government, Not an a-theist government. The Russian
government is against the church and God. They are still believers in wild and
ridiculous claims made by their own government. They Are Not Honest Clear
Thinkers. They are still believers. Therefore, they are not Atheists because
they are not Clear Thinkers or Free Thinkers.
If
Russia ever drops its own pretense at being infallible and lets the Russian
people Think, after a period of confusion, Russia could be the strongest nation
on the face of the earth. The reason is because the yoke of the church has been
thrown off. Marx had the wrong enemy. The enemy of the working people was not,
and is not, capitalism. It was rather the Belief in authority and the slave
mentality that the religions taught. It was this Untrue Religious Philosophy
that taught that obedience, hard work and the state were of Divine origin. That
philosophy was what kept men chained down to the economic exploiters. So, the
capitalist exploiters stole the time and abilities of the believing, non-thinking
and obedient religious workers.
Therefore,
the question really becomes, "Why is “godless” Russia a
dictatorship?" It may be answered simply like this. Russia is not even
necessarily godless. Any people who will believe can just as easily believe in communism
as they can believe in God or vice versa. The Russians have not stopped
believing. They have merely changed the object of their belief. In fact, it is
doubtful if the common people in Russia ever did stop believing in God and
their church. Atheism is not taught in Russia. Anti-church and anti-religion is
taught. A true Clear Thinker could no more believe in communism than he could
believe in Christianity or Islam.
Russia
is simply a powerful dictatorship. The animosity against the church and its believers
is just one method used to remove all dissenting voices from the country and
from what passes for the political process. Why? I can only conclude that it is
a personal thing, an ego driven hunt for power and wealth. Certainly Russian
leadership does not have the best interest of their own people in mind. Rather,
they have power and world conquest as the Personal goals of their political
leaders. (And, how about the USA?)
This
is not to say there is no progress in Russia. This is not to say Russia does
not feed, at least nominally, it's population. It is not to say the people are
unemployed. It is rather to say the cost of these things command only a small
portion of the western world's energy. The cost of these things commands a
great percent of the energies in the communist countries.
Also,
under the communist system, all freedoms are banished. One puts his very life
on the line if he openly disagrees with any pronouncement or decree of the
communist government. Just as it is in the churches, so it is in communism. All
of your thinking is done for you! You do not dare think. To think is to doubt.
To doubt is to become a disbeliever. A disbeliever is an enemy of the state and
a traitor to the people. In the church, such a person is called an Atheist or a
heretic.
A
Clear Thinker in Russia is as much against communism as a Clear Thinker in this
country is against religious belief. Clear Thinking is not against the church
as such. It is against people being asked to believe something that is untrue just
because some authority said the statement is true. Belief is the enemy, not
church people. Likewise, Clear Thinking is against the dictatorial form
communism takes. Clear Thinking is against communism's insistence that one must
believe what the state says is true and one must obey what the state says to
do.
So,
just as "religious beliefs" are dirty words to Clear Thinking, so too
are "state beliefs" dirty words. They apply the same logic to
whatever government or religion with which they are in contact. Thus, Clear
Thinking has some sharp disagreements with the direction of our present
government in the United States even as it does with communism (if there is a
difference).