(August 14, 2015 at 3:17 pm)Parkers Tan Wrote: Understood. As has been mentioned previously, it's a very complex issue, and not amenable to one simplistic explanation: we're addressing raw beliefs, and power-bases in a dictatorship, and ideological demands, and I think that while we might disagree on the proportion this or that reason carries weight, we each understand in this discussion that the several factors had a part to play. I'm enjoying the to-and-fro'.
I lean towards power-base as a big reason for the hostility the Bolsheviks displayed to religion, and yes, the ROC's cooperation with the tsars was a big, if only semi-official, reason for Bolshevik enmity.
It is, there is nothing in this world that has one single cause to it. Having read some Marxist literature out of academic curiosity (not all) I can understand why hostility towards religion and traditional institutions like marriage (many communists seek to abolish marriage instead of expanding it, they're against marriage itself) make sense for marxists and it's not a surprise. Of course, it is possible to merely seek to diminish religion's power and wait for people to voluntarily stop believing, just like it is possible to strip the burgueoise of their wealth without executing them or sending them to Gulags - A stalinist would most likely prefer the more violent and quick approach, some more liberal marxists seem to support some degree of democracy and Humanism.
I also think it is important to look at what happened with impartial lenses - Soviet Russia did progress during Stalin's staying quite a lot, they got into space and had a massive increase in military power, not to mention technology - I don't believe anymore in the notion that socialist societies can't produce or innovate properly, though I'm still skeptical about trying them - There's also all kinds of contradictions like the fact Stalin reinstated the churches or was at least a little homophobic which is a slightly incompatible with the idea of uniting workers - Even though there's some social conservative marxists.
I don't think Stalin or Lenin killed because they were atheists, but I do think not believing in the supernatural was a fundamental part of their ideology, not as much as anti-capitalism and uniting the workers, but certainly an important part because it's a variable in the whole revolution thing and breaking up with tradition and the past.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you
