Serendipity Catholic blog: Anti-this, Anti-that attitudes.

Anti-this, Anti-that attitudes

Being a person who is theistic, or more bluntly, Catholic, I have had a good chance to see the disdain people have towards people of different faiths or non faith backgrounds. Often the disdain comes from those who are of non-belief backgrounds, but, that does not in any way excuse the disdain that some, but not all, theists may show towards those who do not believe. Likewise, Antireligion, or anti-religion, is a form of irreligion that is characterized by opposition, at times leading to hostility, to all religions, generally those founded on sacred texts. This includes, but is not limited to, monotheism, nontheism, and polytheism, whether organized or not. As much as antireligionism rejects significance of all forms of religion, it also opposes them. In this way, antireligionism goes beyond the spectrum of atheism and even anti-theism, both of which contend with the existence of a deity. Antireligionism also rejects and opposes nontheistic religions, such as nontheistic Buddhism and Confucianism. Its opposition to religion also goes beyond the misotheistic spectrum.

Antireligionism may find its beginning in the Enlightenment through outspoken atheist Baron d'Holbach. In his book Christianity Unveiled published in 1761, d'Holbach attacked not only Christianity but religion in general as an impediment to the moral advancement of humanity. Antitheist Christopher Hitchens may be one of the leading antireligionists of the 20th century for maintaining opposition not just to the Abrahamic religions, but to some other religions such as Buddhism.

Antireligionism became increasingly violent with the rise of Communism, where hostility to all religions as political enemies of the state was realized at the national level.

But why has Antireligionism become increasingly violent with the rise of communism? well, communism as you have read, sees all religion as "enemies of the state". Albeit, While antireligionism may be attributed to Baron d'Holbach, his tirade against religion in general is miniscule compared to his argument against theism.

If we look to the Soviet Union as well as Albania, being a communistic state, for any form of learning about communism and being Anti religion, we learn that:

The Soviet Union directed antireligious campaigns at all faiths,[1] including Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, Jewish, and Shamanist religions. In the 1930s, during the Stalinist period, the government destroyed church buildings or put them into secular use (as museums of religion and atheism, clubs or storage facilities), executed clergy, prohibited the publication of most religious material and persecuted some members of religious groups. Less violent attempts to reduce or eliminate the influence of religion in society were also carried out at other times in Soviet history. For instance, it was usually necessary to be an atheist in order to acquire any important political position or any prestigious scientific job; thus many people became atheists in order to advance their careers.

The People's Republic of Albania had an objective for the eventual elimination of all religion in Albania with the goal of creating an atheist nation, which it declared it had achieved in 1967. In 1976, Albania implemented a constitutional ban on religious activity and propaganda. The government nationalised most property of religious institutions and used it for non-religious purposes, such as cultural centers for young people. Religious literature was banned. Many clergy and theists were tried, tortured, and executed. All foreign Roman Catholic clergy were expelled in 1946. Albania was the only country that ever officially banned religion.

The Khmer Rouge attempted to eliminate Cambodia's cultural heritage, including its religions, particularly Theravada Buddhism. In the process, its acolytes killed about 1.7 million people. A mere three thousand Buddhist monks survived the Khmer Rouge horror. There had been sixty thousand monks previously.

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