The Genocide of Mind and Body That is State Imposed Religion

Hey guys, I’m fairly new to blogging, so if this sounds like a rant… then it probably is. I feel like I probably should have supplied some sources for you guys but I’m lazy like that… sorry! Just google some of the things I discuss and do some cross referencing and I think you’ll find I’ve got a few valid points here.

I’m writing this in order to address one of the oldest arguments I’ve heard believers and non-believers debate in regards to whether or not religious or secular governments are more destructive to humanity as a whole. The basic gist of this argument plays out like this… The atheist says, “Religion is responsible for various wars and genocidal campaigns all throughout human history such as the Crusades, the 30 years war, the Spanish Inquisition, the Armenian genocide, and is still going strong at killing people today in Sudan, Israel, and ultimately Iraq and Afghanistan… and that‘s a greatly abbreviated list.” The theist then retorts, “but secular governments have killed plenty of people as well.” It is at this point that the theist will undoubtedly cite two examples. It’s very nearly always the same two countries. Those countries being Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union. Two nations that practically set world records in the category of mass murder. So that looks pretty bad for us non-believers right?!?! No… its considerably more complicated than theists would have us believe in regards to the two aforementioned nations. First off, the whole point of having a secular government is to ensure that the subjects of that nation are able to rationally approach problems by way of critical thinking instead of falling back on unfounded superstitious beliefs to reach decisions about say for example, who would be the best candidate to vote for in an election *ahem BUSH VOTERS*. This was not the aim of secularism in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Those two nations sought to create a cult of personality around Stalin and Hitler. In the case of Nazi Germany, Christianity was amended to fit in line with all of their nonsense about Aryan racial superiority. Jesus and other biblical figures were given blonde hair and blue eyes in German propaganda. Hitler fancied himself a living god here on earth and sought tie Catholicism and Protestantism in with his own ideas about how to run the world in order to bring them under his web of influence. So even though Hitler probably was indeed an atheist more than less he still did not seek to exterminate religious belief, rather to cultivate it for the needs of the Nazi party… unless it was Jewish of course. Using religion for one’s own political gain is hardly secular. There have been plenty of other leaders who have used that formula to gain power over their subjects… you know… like every single one prior to 1789. Okay okay… in all fairness to theists the secular government has only been around for a little over 200 years now. Therefore they don’t have as much history to pour over and find nasty examples of secular governments like atheist do with the thousands of years of history with divine right based governments. Which I think needs to explained before I proceed any further. Before our constitution was ratified (the U.S. constitution) the order of the world in that day was that God himself anointed the kings and queens and emperors of all the world’s nations to rule over their subjects. “Why do I have to pay the king’s tax?” A peasant might ask, to which the tax collector would reply, “Because you’ll go to hell if you don’t! The king answers to God therefore you must answer to the king!” And such was the abysmal order of things in old Europe. Thankfully, the likes of John Locke, Rene Descartes, Thomas Paine, David Hume, and many others of that ilk spurred the birth of the enlightenment movement which sought to take the power away from autocratic charmers allegedly appointed by God himself, and put it in the hands of the common man. This movement only managed to slowly chip away at the old divine right monarchies of Europe. They all slowly fell by the wayside over the course of the 19th century. The final divine right monarchies in Europe were swept away by the trauma of the First World War. By the end of that war the last kings appointed by God had been removed from Europe such as the Hapsburg dynasty in Austria-Hungary, the Czars in Russia, Spain’s old monarchy was in it’s dying days, as was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Meanwhile the rest of Europe had long since put some sort of secular representative government in place in their respective nations. I know it seems like I’ve digressed from talking about the Nazis and the communist into this other tangent. But this is where it all ties in together. Because it was this void left by the failure of divine right monarchies that led to the rise of communism and fascism in Europe. There were a lot of pissed off people in Europe after the First World War not to put too fine a point on it. People upset with corrupt democratic systems or dying divine right monarchies that had sent their boys off to fight in a rich man’s war and got in return… especially in the case of Germany… paper currency worth no more than toilet paper. Ripe grounds for a power hungry dictator to seize control of the country. However, the old ploy of telling the masses that you had God at your back simply didn’t spook the people the way it had in centuries past, and so the mantra of authoritarianism was re-written. Nationalism was the new religion that communism and fascism would use to inspire the masses. A cult of the state and it’s beloved leader. New media such as radio and motion pictures helped immensely in the development of these new strains of authoritarian government. A film such as “Triumph of the Will” is a perfect example of how this concept of a living god ruling over the state was perpetuated. To put it bluntly… Germans stopped praying to the cross and started praying to the swastika instead. I’d hardly call that secularism. If you aren’t convinced that Nazism is a religion all its own, I implore you to watch some footage of the Nuremburg rallies.

Now on to the theists “golden example” of the evils of an atheist government… the USSR. While it can be debated as to whether or not Hitler was a non-believer. There is no doubt that the likes of Lenin and Stalin were indeed as they say “godless commies.” Unlike the Nazis, the Soviet communist actively sought to destroy all traces of superstition in the USSR (burning churches, murdering clergy, ect). But again, the reason for this was not to remove religion and replace it with rationale among the common man or woman, but to remove the fear of God and replace it with the fear of Stalin. The Soviets did exactly what divine right monarchies did to their subjects, oppress those who don’t believe in the state’s mantra by means of execution or enslavement. It’s estimated that during the time of the Soviet Union (1917-1991) their government murdered somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 million Christians for the simple reason of being Christian. That doesn’t sound like a secular government… it sounds like a government with a state religion… and it was… the religion just happened to be atheism. The Soviet government went well out of its way to educate children about the evils of religion… which is all good and fine but the problem lies in the way that they did it. Because the discussion ended there…. It’s evil, don’t ask questions about it, if you do you’ll get sent to a work camp in Siberia! Don’t worship the cross, worship uncle Joe (Stalin)!

Another point I‘d like to make is, how many secular democracies have waged war or committed genocide in the name of eradicating God? None that I can think of… and how many theocratic democracies (I use this term loosely but some nations claim to have it in place) have waged war or committed genocide in God’s name… well Iran comes to mind, as they are a theocratic republic, but all they’ve done is arm militant groups, they haven’t actually waged any wars directly. Not that they started anyway… it seems like there’s another democratic country who’s leader evokes the name of the almighty frequently before he sends the military into battle, this country even has the words “In God We Trust” printed on its currency, and who‘s voters essentially blacklist all non-Christian politicians… hmmmm what country is that again??!!??! Oh yeah! The United States of America!!! Spreading “freedom” the world over at the barrel of a gun, just as Jesus would have it right?

In conclusion, the point I’m trying to make is that having a healthy society isn’t about making all of its subjects believe in Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, atheism, or the superiority of ones own nationality. It’s about forcing people to give up superstitious beliefs along with die hard attachments to symbols like the cross, the American flag, the hammer and sickle, or the swastika, and to base all of the decisions they make in their daily lives on what is concrete (provable) in the world around them. If you’re worried about the state of your marriage, gay marriage, your house, your car, your kids, the economy, the war, your classes, social classes ect. Don’t sit there and pray about it! Get up off your lousy knees and talk it out with the people around you who are undoubtedly sure to know better than some man at the pulpit wearing a funny hat who claims to know where you go when you die!

By the way would someone tell George W. Bush that divine right in the western world has been dead for nearly 100 years… he needs to go back to the 17th century where he belongs! That goes for you too Sarah Palin! You’re on notice!