Category: 
Or maybe them damn Commie Atheists did!!
OK, since nobody has voted me off this Otherwhirld, I have returned to further explore the intersection of atheism and communism as a method of vilifying atheists and to explore what might be next.
Thanks for those who did visit and leave compliments. You do realize that you are only encouraging me, right? Ok, just checking.
One of the comments came from my blogfriend Infidel753. Despite our different ways of viewing the world, Infidel and I have explored each other’s blogs and discussed our differences in a very positive way.
This is exactly the sort of interchange and communication that I love and long for in the blog and the real worlds.
I am not here to judge you and I hope that you are not here to judge me. Curiosity is my thing – what makes you tick, I wonder. Why do you believe what you do? It is a fair question, I think. You can ask me anytime. I can’t promise answers that will satisfy, but I will always try to keep the conversation alive.
For some people the question puts them on the defense. I get that. Often times the question does not come out of curiosity nor does it contain respect. The question is often the preamble to the argument, the conversion pitch or the putdown.
Not from me – ok? I hope y’all ask me some good questions.
Anyway, Infidel sent me this link to a post he did in 2006 that relates to this topic.
One problem I see which plagues both the religious and the atheists is this… Very often I will read (notice I say often and not always) the premise that religion is the reason for wanton power grabs, evil deeds and death. Hold up, we will explore that as there is truth to it, but that is not where we are headed today.
The religious then drag out the canard of all canards – what about Communism
Ho hum - What about it? A look at the entire mess of war, killing, evil domination - again to be discussed in a future post – shows that pretty much the desire for domination plagues all systems and that generally results in all kinds of f*ckery.
In a case of sheer numbers and the power of propaganda, that sets the stage for the idea that atheism and communism are somehow related. After - there are, for good or ill, more who claim religion and let’s remember the world power structures depend on keeping the dominant players in place. Thus propaganda, as governments, those in power and those who believe in a system work to keep the masses in place.
All of which brings me to this… If you go read the link to Infidel, which I hope that you do, he presents a much better argument than I can about how atheism is an absence of belief.
Belief - in communism, religion, government - are all sadly and frequently abused as constructs to keep other people down.
In this country, somehow the notion of God (well probably for all time) is somehow a bet to be hedged against. Many choose to believe, to attend church, profess all kinds of things simply because they are afraid.
Now how stupid is that? (I may explore this sorry premise for belief in another post.)
Due to the weakness of this position and people’s fragile ego strength they are then forced to be defensive about it.
What better way to defend (please note as snark) one’s position than to put down the other side.
And in this country, after WWII what better way to defend that than equating atheism with communism?
So that presents the so-called dual evil. That is how polarized systems work. And they tend to work well because some part of human nature takes comfort in it. That means, each time we act out of defense, we carry the torch of that notion. It is sad and the results are tragic.
It is a totally ridiculous premise. It is inane. It is really stupid. And like many old behaviors, it just carries on. This brings to mind a post that I did awhile back that caused a major shitstorm of comments. If you are so inclined you can see that post here.
I - for one – dispute the idea that atheism is inherently evil and that it has any single thing to do with communism or any other so called evil thing.
This goes back to my earlier thought – where is the curiosity people?
May I present an idea for a forum that discusses ideas rather than defense of positions?
This may get me tossed from this spot, but my curiosity demands that the question gets asked.
Right now we may also be at the fringe of a shift of thought – now atheism does not stand alone in the American mind (such as it is) as the pure force of evil, but now Islam is added to the mix.
I wonder where this will lead. We can see the hateful spew of Hagee and others as they denounce Islam out loud.
Guess what kids – they denounce the Jews too, just more quietly so. They still need access to Israel for the (yawn) apocalypse. Hagee and others of his type get $$$$ galore from extreme Zionist types and vice versa.
Does this mean that one day, in the world of lesser of two evils that Americans might rather elect an atheist over a Muslim?
Why is it that we project out what we fear, dislike or don’t understand? Atheist today, Muslim too - those are allegedly evil in the mind of the mainstream. What will be next?
