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Well, technically atheist extremists would uphold Soviet-style “state atheism” where religious groups are repressed violently and religious affiliation is outlawed. Killing and repressing people for being Christian or Buddhist or whatever would be just as bad as doing the same thing to people for being atheist. Of course, unless you live somewhere like Xinjiang Province or North Korea, you’re very unlikely to encounter any significant organisation which seeks to actively force people to abandon their religions.
Basically, unless someone is running a scam like Scientology, promoting a violent extremist sect like Wahhabi Islam, shunning “apostates” like Mormons or just running a flat-out doomsday cult or something, people should be allowed to practice a religion, own a holy book and convene in a designated place of worship with peers of their faith. They just shouldn’t be allowed to compel others to join that faith, or enjoy privileges from the state such as a blanket tax-free status.
I would suggest that atheists could also be extremely capitalist and pursue… Darwinian economics…and be very hostile to religion.
Or institute a secular religion like we see in Brave New World
The Russian Orthodox Church continued to operate uninterrupted during the entire history of the Soviet Union. They didn’t persecute religion, they persecuted the non-Christians. Stalin tried to move all the Jews to an oblast in Siberia, for example.
That’s not true. The Russian Orthodox Church had a significant number of its (culturally and artistically significant) buildings tore down and a significant amount of bishops and priests killed.
The bishops and priests that were killed were killed because they were against the state, not because they were practicing religion. Stalin, like Mao with Buddhism, used the Orthodox Church to wield power.
In practice that seems to be mostly true. But I wouldn’t rule out the possibly of an atheist extremist trying to eliminate religious from the world. It’s important to realize that they’re still individuals that used an ideology to justify their actions. I know it’s harder with atheism because it’s not an ideology but a lack thereof, but I would argue it’s still important to recognize what comes down to human behavior and that it can come from anywhere.
Still a funny comic.
The commies, like Stalin and Mao, persecuted and murdered religious people.
The Chinese are still doing it to Tibetans and Uyghurs today.
Stalin and Mao created cults of personality around themselves. They share a lot more in common with religious extremism than secular humanism.
Dictatorships are an inherent perversion of communist ideals. Also China is not coming from an atheistic place.
The full comic adds a bit, but it’s still funny. The Oatmeal has a bunch of good ones!
