(March 21, 2014 at 4:08 pm)Mister Agenda Wrote: Of the 20th century's big four megaolmaniacal dictators: Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot; only Stalin was unequivocally an atheist. Hitler was at least a Christian-y deist, and the other two were Buddhists (Tibetan and Theravayan, respectively). who referred to heaven as a real place and Mao once mentioned the 'Great God' was going to call him soon.
Of course, Christians to atheists is an apples-and-oranges comparison...Christians to humanists would be the more relevant comparison these days.
No, Mao is as atheist as they come. He usage of "Great God" was almost assuredly figurative, much as Mikhail Gorbachev spoke of "God on high", or modern Chinese communists speak of death as "going to see Marx".
