Is Communism Synonymous With Atheism?

[Travis]

In the post that led me to create this poll.

He mentions Karl Marx the person as someone who drew inspiration from the French Revolution brand Communism. Then goes on to make the communism = atheism equivalency in the next sentence without a caveat that it is only Marxist brand Communism that is being talked about.

But then Epix has gone on to really say weird stuff in this thread too.

 

[PixyMisa]

It's not really that communism doesn't work - We can't really know. It's that it seems just about impossible to set up.

No, it's easy to set up. If you're prepared to shoot everyone who disagrees.

 

[Ron_Tomkins]

Is Communism Synonymous With Atheism?

No.

 

[epix]

Would you do us a favor and go poop in someone else's pool. We have enough trouble maintaining the chlorine around here.

http://www.edcgov.us/emd/envhealth/homeowner_septic.html

I show you a lightning-fast conversion. (No, I'm not talking a conversion to a different religion.)

Go to the Alphabet Store and buy letter K. Add it to the septic tank, like between S and E in "septic," and watch . . .

SEPTIC TANK .................-> SKEPTIC THINK TANK.

Q: Is there a link between skepticism and something that stinks?
A: Yes, assuming that "stink" is a synonym to "think."

Since "stink" and "think" rhyme, both words must be synonyms, and therefore there is a strong correlation between marxism-leninism-atheism and the evolution of species.

 

[timhau]

 

[TubbaBlubba]

No, it's easy to set up. If you're prepared to shoot everyone who disagrees.

I appreciate your effort to be witty, but "Stalinism/Maoism = Communism" antics have gotten really cliché.

 

[timhau]

Actually, I think it was Lenin who figured out that if you want your way without compromises, instead of shooting the extremist opposition and reasoning with the moderates, it's better to shoot the moderates first. Then you can later shoot everyone else in the opposition as well, because they just can't be reasoned with.

 

[westprog]

Ah, population error. For many people, "Communism" is properly understood to mean Stalinism. For others, it means the Communist Party of the Soviety Union or the US. For serious political scholars (I like to include myself), it encompases the entire political philosophy of small-c communism. It has been stated several times, truly, that a communist society can be organized under the banner of a religion, or under the banner of religious tolerance.

An analogy: Would you make the argument that "capitalist" is commonly understood to mean "Libertarian"?

No. Because it isn't. However, "communist" is commonly understood to refer to "Marxist communist" because that's how the term is commonly understood. So it's not reasonable to debunk the OP claim by pointing to the alternative meanings of communist, since that's just pointless arguing over definitions. It's purely futile.

It might be interesting to consider non-Marxist communism, and discuss how it differs from Marxism - but it can't possibly be used to rebut a claim that refers only to Marxist communism.

Any discussion that turns solely on what words really mean ends up being fairly pointless - even if one person is using the word incorrectly. For example, it's fairly obvious from the discussion that the word "synonym" was used wrongly at some stage. To force someone to defend a claim that he didn't mean to make isn't very productive, though it might be quite amusing.

Already been debunked several times in this thread. Marx himself was an atheist and dismissive of religion. That does not mean that all Marxists are Atheists.

An analogy: James Randi is an atheist - does that mean that all skeptics are atheists?

No, it would imply that all Randians are atheists. If there were a coherent body of Randian teaching.

The confusion seems to be between some arbitrary characterist of Marx, and what is an essential element of his thought. I don't recall Marx ever insisting that his followers wear beards, for example. He didn't demand that they were Jewish. There were all kinds of things that Marx did, or believed, that form no part of Marxism.

But if you read the main works of Marx, you get a coherent philosophy that all hangs together. Atheism is not presented as an optional extra. It's the basis of the materialism which is the foundation of the political and economic thought.

I expect that if you looked around, you'd find Christians who don't believe in God - who would say that they like the teachings of Christ, apart from the religious bits. One can reasonably say that while they've taken some aspects of Christianity, they aren't Christians in the same sense as the majority.

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Actually, I think it was Lenin who figured out that if you want your way without compromises, instead of shooting the extremist opposition and reasoning with the moderates, it's better to shoot the moderates first. Then you can later shoot everyone else in the opposition as well, because they just can't be reasoned with.

I'm embarrassed to say that I don't know as much about Lenin's politics as I'd like to.

 

[Foster Zygote]

http://www.edcgov.us/emd/envhealth/homeowner_septic.html

I show you a lightning-fast conversion. (No, I'm not talking a conversion to a different religion.)

Go to the Alphabet Store and buy letter K. Add it to the septic tank, like between S and E in "septic," and watch . . .

SEPTIC TANK .................-> SKEPTIC THINK TANK.

Q: Is there a link between skepticism and something that stinks?
A: Yes, assuming that "stink" is a synonym to "think."

Since "stink" and "think" rhyme, both words must be synonyms, and therefore there is a strong correlation between marxism-leninism-atheism and the evolution of species.

Now I understand. Epix is the Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight.

"So he says to me, you gotta do something smart, baby, something big! He says you want to be a supervillain, right, and I go yeah baby, yeah yeah! What do I gotta do? He says you got bombs, blow up the Comet Club, it's packed with superheroes…you'll go down in supervillain history and I go Yeah baby 'cause I'm the Evil Midnight Bomber what Bombs at Midnight!!! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!"

 

[Foster Zygote]

The irony of the Communist Revolution is that the revolutionary idealists who spent decades dreaming of it prior to 1917 seem not to have envisioned it as a repressive, totalitarian dictatorship. The historians I studied under showed me that the Russian Revolution's forced birth led to a state of paranoia about outside threats that just never dissipated. The Revolution was born of the gun and, not surprisingly, those in power never put down their guns.

 

[westprog]

Where did Epix state that we are only talking about a strictly Marxist type of Communism?

I don't think precise and delicate shades of meaning are what Epix deals in.

 

[Sledge]

Now I understand. Epix is the Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight.

"So he says to me, you gotta do something smart, baby, something big! He says you want to be a supervillain, right, and I go yeah baby, yeah yeah! What do I gotta do? He says you got bombs, blow up the Comet Club, it's packed with superheroes…you'll go down in supervillain history and I go Yeah baby 'cause I'm the Evil Midnight Bomber what Bombs at Midnight!!! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!"

I have nothing to add, but this deserves quoting. Never thought I'd see someone quoting this here.

 

[Nonpareil]

Now I understand. Epix is the Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight.

Nope. I'm pretty sure he's just your average CR 5 monster.

 

[Dani]

I understand the intentions of the OP, but this would fit better in the humor section.

 

[epix]

Already been debunked several times in this thread. Marx himself was an atheist and dismissive of religion. That does not mean that all Marxists are Atheists.

An analogy: James Randi is an atheist - does that mean that all skeptics are atheists?

1. Hitler was a vegetarian.
2. Hitler was a Nazi.
Conclusion:
All Nazi party members were vegetarians. (False.)

1. Marx was an atheist.
2. ???????????????????
Conclusion:
Not all Marxists are Atheist. (Invalid: the minor premise is missing.)

The way atheists "debunk" things is similar to the attempt of the Church to debunk Galileo.

 

[Cavemonster]

1. Marx was an atheist.
2. ???????????????????
3. Profit

ftfy

 

[Foster Zygote]

1. Hitler was a vegetarian.
2. Hitler was a Nazi.
Conclusion:
All Nazi party members were vegetarians. (False.)

1. Marx was an atheist.
2. ???????????????????
Conclusion:
Not all Marxists are Atheist. (Invalid: the minor premise is missing.)

The way atheists "debunk" things is similar to the attempt of the Church to debunk Galileo.

Marx was not a Marxist.

 

[sthomson]

No. Because it isn't. However, "communist" is commonly understood to refer to "Marxist communist" because that's how the term is commonly understood. So it's not reasonable to debunk the OP claim by pointing to the alternative meanings of communist, since that's just pointless arguing over definitions. It's purely futile.

Repeating a false premise does not make it true. Lower-c "communist" is NOT "commonly understood" to refer to Marxism. Nor is Marxism "commonly understood" to refer to the policies and practices of the Communist Party of the USSR.

Unless by "commonly understood" you mean "commonly mis-understood", in which case I would agree with you. And if we're talking about misunderstandings, then I think it's perfectly valid to explain why it's a mistaken premise.

Gah, if I have to use any more ironic scare quotes, my fingers are going to fall off.

 

[epix]

The atheists often blame the theists for the substantial loss of life due to religious wars. But the biggest massacre in the history of mankind was caused by the atheists, who do not believe in the existence of Supreme Being. That means Cain was an atheist, coz the existence of Supreme Being was a fact for him. In his lifetime, the world population comprised four people: Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel. When atheist Cain whacked his bro Abel, he effectively wiped out 25% of the world population.

Was Cain a communist apart from being an atheist?

Yes, he was. Communist regimes often boasted that education was free of charge under the system. The proof:

1. Eve ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.
2. The Serpent didn't charge her anything for the education. (Genesis doesn't mention that he did.)
Therefore:
3. The Garden of Eden was a communist country.

But!
Are all folks living in the communist countries communists?

Let 'A' stand for Atheism and 'C' for Communism.
Since Abel's initial is 'A', Abel was an Atheist.
Since Cain's initial is 'C', Cain was a Communist.

From the above, we can safely conclude that atheism and communism are siblings prone to the fratricide. (See Stalin's purges of his own politburo.)

His Omniscience and Irreversible Wisdom God saw the commies coming and issued the "be advised" notice in Genesis. But since things that are prophesied cannot be changed, His Kind Warning was pretty much useless. It only proves that God's mind works mysterious ways, and if it does, then there must be God -- with all the implications in tow.