RUSSIAN ATHEISM *

*(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 the True descriptions that more clearly defines the difference between them. For the word “communism” substitute the true descriptive word "Authoritarianism.” For the word “religious” substitute true descriptive the words "Gullibility or Superstitious," 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, 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 today 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 nations of 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, finance and favor that religion.

(In return for this favoritism, the government expects support, votes and evangelistic efforts on the part of the religion to help promote the government’s plans to expand its power – and this includes starting wars, torture, surveillance of its own people, bills giving additional opportunities to subjugate minorities and such.)

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 USA when the people get enough of repression? Will the people kill leaders and burn churches?)

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 and harmful to the people.

So, Atheism in Russia is not true Atheism. Russia borrowed the “Conclusions” of Atheism without borrowing the scholarship and the “scientific method” of Clear Thinking (from which the conclusions stem). 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 and speaking 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 to verify the truthfulness of his conclusions.

My conclusion is Russia is not at all atheistic. Rather, Russia is anti church and anti religion. They view religion as a competitor for the minds of the people. By no stretch of imagination or terminology could Russia, or the party, be classified as Honest Clear Thinkers. If one cannot be classified as a Clear Thinker or Free Thinker, he is not classified as an Atheist (one who follows the Philosophy of Atheism). 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 their teachings about 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 the 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 the 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).

Thomas E. Blaylock

Updated: 04/04/08

Updated: 08/04/10

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