Atheism is a lack of belief in a god or gods. There are metaphysical implications in such a stance. Read up on metaphysical naturalism if you get a chance.
Metaphysical naturalism is generally what we call materialism.
However, this is not characteristic of atheism as such. A large group of atheists entertain various kinds of beliefs in the supernatural. Some are even organized religions.
Now, if this was a thread about 'Atheism' I might be inclined to agree to ignore those and concentrate on what we could call hard atheism, aka materialism aka metaphysical naturalism.
However, this is a thread about China, and, while predominantly atheist, Chinese culture is far from hard atheism. In fact, it is full of supernatural beliefs and religious and semi-religious notions (Buddhism, a form of Shintoism, ancestor worship, numerology, astrology, and general superstitions).
Let's call it Sino-atheism.
If they were real atheists rather than just sino-atheists, in what way would they act differently?
Obviously, I have no idea. I don't consider atheism other than a minor influence in the MO of the Chinese government.
A political group, declared atheists, gain power. They believe that religions are false because there are no god or gods, and they believe that religions are a danger to social well-being. So they decide to limit and then probably remove religions in they can.
They are acting on the idea that they regard religions as a danger to society rather than to some pure idea of atheism.
"They" might. However, "they" are not the Chinese government. The Chinese government is fully aware of the social values in allowing, even maintaining part of the original culture, including various belief systems. Otherwise, they would not have written a commitment to do so into the constitution of the country.
People then think that I am arguing that "they are doing this because they are atheists!" But I am not arguing that. I'm asking how the metaphysical beliefs behind atheism -- the idea that the universe is all there is -- influences their actions. I see the statement that it is "atheism vs theism", "science vs superstition" and "materialism vs idealism" as an indication of thought processes behind their actions, which is ultimately about control.
If you think that the atrocities in China are ultimately about control, we are not only in agreement, but very probably right.
The fact that we see the same atrocious behaviour in other governments with state-sponsored atheism is possibly significant.
I disagree. Atrocious behavior is typical of totalitarian governments regardless of their religious background. Of course their choice of target groups might vary.
Hans
