Could Communism in Russia have been successful with Christianity instead of Atheism?

[strathmeyer]

Mmmmm... on the off chance that you weren't being ironic (It's sometimes hard to tell on the net.) Christianity is, and was even back then, the prevalent religion in Russia.

I know; please reread the thread title.

Don't worry, sometimes I read my posts and before looking at the poster-name think to myself, "what a dumbass."

 

[Foster Zygote]

And that's where the Atheistic doctrine comes in.

What atheistic doctrine?

 

[Miss Anthrope]

Doc, are you renting "A State of Mind"? Because you'll see quite clearly what goes on in situations like this, and atheistic doctrine, whatever that is, is not involved.

Just a nugget:


See any similarities to what the girls are saying about "the general" and what people say about god?

 

[Miss Anthrope]

What atheistic doctrine?

Don't you know anything about Thomas Jefferson, Foster?

 

[skeptifem]

What atheistic doctrine?

thats exactly what i was thinking when he said that.

 

[Tony]

I have a feeling the world would be a pretty nice place to live if everyone were like them.

Correct me if I am wrong, but JP II and Mother T never had any children or even had any romantic relationships. If everyone were like them, humanity would quickly become extinct.

 

[Damien Evans]

Since I never met her or went to her clinics, I could have no proof. I do have testimony from reliable sources. Read Hitchens for starters, The Missionary Position. Here's a quote from it from a volunteer regarding her operation: "My initial impression was of all the photographs and footage I've ever seen of Belsen [Nazi death camp] and places like that, because all the patients had shaved heads. No chairs anywhere, there were just these stretcher beds. They're like First World War stretcher beds. There's no garden, no yard even. No nothing. And I thought what is this? This is two rooms with fifty to sixty men in one, fifty to sixty women in another. They're dying. They're not being given a great deal of medical care. They're not being given painkillers really beyond aspirin...for the sort of pain that goes with terminal cancer..."

Dr. Robin Fox, editor of The Lancet visited Mother Theresa's clinic in Calcutta and found no strong pain medication was stocked. Apparently she (Mother Teresa) believed that the suffering of the poor brought god's blessings on humanity as evidenced by this quote: "I think it is very beautiful for the poor to accept their lot . . . I think the world is being much helped by the suffering of the poor people."

She also, despite vast sums of money in the bank, forced her nurses to reuse needles over and over again until they became so blunt the wouldn't penetrate the skin. Apparently she believed that increasing the suffering of her victims and clinging stubbornly to her vow of poverty was a good thing.

Evil bitch.

Wow, I didn't know that

 

[DOC]

The question seems to imply that atheism was the religion of the Soviets. Atheism, of course, is not a religion. The religion of the Soviets was Communism.

Well actually a US court did rule that secular humanism (a cousin of atheism) was a religion. And why did the Soviets close down the churches like St. Basils if they weren't concerned about religious subject matters.

 

[DOC]

If there were a Hell, Mother Theresa would no doubt be burning in its deepest depths right now. Apparently you form your opinion about things and people by watching television and listening to the propaganda from the Catholic Church. She was an evil woman who imposed untold suffering on the people she "helped" by refusing to spend money to cure them or spare them more suffering.

Maybe your research is better than the Nobel Prize selection committee. And also the government of India who gave her a state funeral. Her body was paraded through the streets of India before many thousands of people like she was some sort of a god.

From Wikis article on Mother Theresa:

1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitute a threat to peace." She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India,[35] stating that earthly rewards were important only if they helped her help the world's needy. When Mother Teresa received the prize, she was asked, "What can we do to promote world peace?" Her answer was "Go home and love your family." Building upon this theme in her Nobel Lecture, she said: "Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society - that poverty is so hurtable [sic] and so much, and I find that very difficult."[36]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa

 

[PixyMisa]

Maybe your research is better than the Nobel Prize selection committee.

That's not implausible.

On the one hand, Norman Borlaug won the prize.
Oh the other, so did Yasser Arafat.

 

[Oroborus]

Oooh, yes, they could have added a religious inquisition to all the other pointless horrors!

"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" You made the silly brits pop into my head



As for the OP, well I think it's been covered.

 

[Cheesejoff]

Communism in Russia was already very un-Marxist. Christian communism would have been even worse.

 

[Cleon]

Well actually a US court did rule that secular humanism (a cousin of atheism)

No, it isn't--you don't actually know what "secular humanism" is, do you?

was a religion.

And no, no US court has ever ruled that secular humanism is a "religion."

And why did the Soviets close down the churches like St. Basils if they weren't concerned about religious subject matters.

And where the hell did this come from?

 

[DOC]

Quote from DOC
And why did the Soviets close down the churches like St. Basils if they weren't concerned about religious subject matters.

And where the hell did this come from?

Article "St. Basil's Cathedral"

"Early in this century the cathedral almost fell prey to the atheist principles of the Bolshevik regime. In 1918 the communist authorities shot the church's senior priest, Ioann Vostorgov, confiscated its property, melted down its bells and closed the cathedral down."

http://www.moscow-taxi.com/churches/st-basils-cathedral.html

 

[Miss Anthrope]

Quote from DOC
And why did the Soviets close down the churches like St. Basils if they weren't concerned about religious subject matters.





Wiki's article on St. Basils:

"Early in this century the cathedral almost fell prey to the atheist principles of the Bolshevik regime. In 1918 the communist authorities shot the church's senior priest, Ioann Vostorgov, confiscated its property, melted down its bells and closed the cathedral down."

http://www.moscow-taxi.com/churches/st-basils-cathedral.html

Again, was this done in the name of atheism, or the the name of the regime, which wanted to have complete control? Just because the article says "Atheist principles" doesn't make it "all about atheism".


ETA: Interested in that film I've recommended?

 

[skeptifem]

Maybe your research is better than the Nobel Prize selection committee. And also the government of India who gave her a state funeral. Her body was paraded through the streets of India before many thousands of people like she was some sort of a god.

From Wikis article on Mother Theresa:

1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitute a threat to peace." She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India,[35] stating that earthly rewards were important only if they helped her help the world's needy. When Mother Teresa received the prize, she was asked, "What can we do to promote world peace?" Her answer was "Go home and love your family." Building upon this theme in her Nobel Lecture, she said: "Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society - that poverty is so hurtable [sic] and so much, and I find that very difficult."[36]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa

what the... you used wikipedia as a source??? I guess you havent read the wiki articles on jefferson or the aclu.

 

[DOC]

And no, no US court has ever ruled that secular humanism is a "religion."

Apparently our friend Justice Hugo "KKK" Black who helped give us the legal term "Separation of Church and State" thought secular humanism is a religion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Ethical_Society_v._District_of_Columbia

 

[Foster Zygote]

Apparently our friend Justice Hugo "KKK" Black who helped give us the legal term "Separation of Church and State" thought secular humanism is a religion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Ethical_Society_v._District_of_Columbia

I found this bit especially interesting:

This case is sometimes cited as establishing Secular Humanism as a religion under the law. That characterization of the case is questioned because the case was not about whether Secular Humanism constituted a religion. However, Justice Hugo Black did clearly cite Fellowship of Humanity v. County of Alameda as he described Secular Humanism as a religion, be his assertion obiter dictum or no.

Did you click on the link to find out what obiter dictum means? If you had carefully read the page you linked to for comprehension you would have noted that it does not support your claim. The court did not rule that secular humanism is a religion. Black stated his opinion as such but no ruling was made on the religious status of secular humanism.

 

[RecoveringYuppy]

I would suspect he also cherry picked that case since it would be difficult to come across that without also coming across some of the others mentioned here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_humanism

 

[Solus]

I believe history gives you the answer to your question...