RE: Atheism, faith and dictatoship
October 20, 2014 at 4:26 am
(This post was last modified: October 20, 2014 at 4:38 am by Alex K.)
The question that comes to my mind reading your OP is what you actually mean by "atheism protects..." when applied to a population. Do you mean "what if the entire/majority of the population is atheist"? In this case it is crucially important why that is. If they are mostly or all atheist because they are indoctrinated from birth that there is no god, and that it is so because the Dear Leader, or holy logic, says it is so, this is not much help. What you really want in my opinion is critical thinking skills.
One thing seems for certain though - through the systematic eradication of critical thinking in the population, the establishment of a doctrine, a leader caste that may not be questioned because it represents God, and a messianic figure, by the religious institutions, a fertile environment has been provided in the past for a charismatic dictatorship to arise. Hitler could set himself up as the new messiah no problem because the population had been taught to think in those terms, and had been taught not to question. Stalin came after a Tsar who was the supreme leader of the secular and religious realm, and had his authority basically vested in him by God. That some form of state atheism was then established in the Soviet Union was no help against this charismatic dictatorship, because it was not an atheism that had sprung from free thought. The God of Christianity and its Messiah had simply been replaced by a similar, more earthly figure.
So to summarize, I don't think atheism is the highest good here, it can only sensibly be the result of a process, not the starting point.
One thing seems for certain though - through the systematic eradication of critical thinking in the population, the establishment of a doctrine, a leader caste that may not be questioned because it represents God, and a messianic figure, by the religious institutions, a fertile environment has been provided in the past for a charismatic dictatorship to arise. Hitler could set himself up as the new messiah no problem because the population had been taught to think in those terms, and had been taught not to question. Stalin came after a Tsar who was the supreme leader of the secular and religious realm, and had his authority basically vested in him by God. That some form of state atheism was then established in the Soviet Union was no help against this charismatic dictatorship, because it was not an atheism that had sprung from free thought. The God of Christianity and its Messiah had simply been replaced by a similar, more earthly figure.
So to summarize, I don't think atheism is the highest good here, it can only sensibly be the result of a process, not the starting point.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
