Antireligion: Difference between revisions

'''Antireligion''' is opposition to [[religion]] of any kind.<ref>{{cite web|title=Anti-religion|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anti-religion|website=Merriam-Webster Dictionary|publisher=Merriam-Webster Online|accessdate=26 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Antireligion|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/antireligion|website=Collins Dictionary|publisher=Collins Dictionary Online|accessdate=26 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Bullivant|first1=Stephen|last2=Lee|first2=Lois|title=A Dictionary of Atheism|date=2016|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780191816819}}</ref> The term has been used to describe opposition to [[organized religion]], [[religious ritual|religious practices]] or [[religious institutions]]. This term has also been used to describe opposition to specific forms of supernatural worship or practice, whether organized [[spiritual but not religious|or not]]. Opposition to religion also goes beyond the [[Misotheism|misotheistic]] spectrum. As such it is distinct from deity-specific positions such as [[atheism]] (the absence of a belief in deities) and [[antitheism]] (an opposition to belief in deities), although "antireligionists", a neologism as of 2017, sfaik, may also be atheists or antitheists.   

An early form of mass antireligion was expressed during the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], as early as the 17th century. [[Baron d'Holbach]]'s book ''Christianity Unveiled'' published in 1761, attacked not only Christianity but religion in general as an impediment to the moral advancement of humanity.{{cn|date=April 2017}} According to historian [[Michael Burleigh]], antireligion found its first mass expression of barbarity in [[French Revolution|revolutionary France]] as "organised ... irreligion...an 'anti-clerical' and self-styled 'non-religious' state" responded violently to religious influence over society.<ref>[[Michael Burleigh]] ''Earthly Powers'' p 96-97 {{ISBN|0-00-719572-9}}</ref> [[Criticism of religion|Critic of religion]] [[Christopher Hitchens]] was a well-known antireligionist of the 20th century who maintained opposition to religion, arguing that [[Freedom of speech|free expression]] and scientific discovery should replace religion as the method of teaching [[ethics]] and defining human civilization.

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.{{cn|date=April 2017}}

The [[Soviet Union]] adopted the political ideology of [[Marxism-Leninism]] and viewed religion as closely tied with foreign nationality.  It thus directed varying degrees of antireligious efforts at varying faiths, depending on what threat they posed to the Soviet state, and their willingness to subordinate itself to political authority.  These antireligious campaigns were directed at all faiths,<ref name="countrystudies.us">http://www.countrystudies.us/russia/38.htm</ref><ref name="country-data.com">{{cite web| url=http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-12521.html| title=Soviet Union: Policy toward nationalities and religions in practice| date=May 1989| website=www.country-data.com| accessdate=2017-04-25}}</ref> including [[Christian]], [[Islamic]], [[Buddhist]], [[Jewish]], and [[Shamanist]] religions. In the 1930s, during the [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]ist 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.<ref name="countrystudies.us"/><ref>{{cite journal|jstor=125428|pages=20–30|last1=Timasheff|first1=N. S.|title=The Church in the Soviet Union 1917 - 1941|volume=1|issue=1|journal=Russian Review|year=1941|doi=10.2307/125428}}</ref><ref name="USGOV1">{{cite web|title=Revelations from the Russian Archives: ANTI-RELIGIOUS CAMPAIGNS|url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/anti.html|website=Library of Congress|quote=The Soviet Union was the first state to have as an ideological objective the elimination of religion. Toward that end, the Communist regime confiscated church property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated atheism in the schools. Actions toward particular religions, however, were determined by State interests, and most organized religions were never outlawed.|publisher=US Government|accessdate=2 May 2016}}</ref> 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. Sources disagree on the results of the antireligious campaigns, with some claiming the death of 21 million [[Russia]]n [[Orthodox Christians]] by the Soviet government, not including other religious groups or persecutions without killings,<ref>World Christian trends, AD 30-AD 2200, p.230-246 Tables 4-5 & 4-10 By David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, Christopher R. Guidry, Peter F. Crossing NOTE: They define 'martyr' on p235 as only including christians killed for faith and excluding other christians killed</ref> and other sources stating that only up to 500,000 [[Russia]]n [[Orthodox Christians]] were persecuted by the Soviet government, not including other religious groups.<ref>[http://www.pravmir.ru/skolko-repressirovannyx-v-rossii-postradali-za-xrista Емельянов Н.Е. Сколько репрессированных в России пострадали за Христа?]</ref> The [[Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic]] targeted numerous clergy for arrest and interrogation as enemies of the state,<ref name=mphdr>{{ro}}Martiri pentru Hristos, din România, în perioada regimului comunist, Editura Institutului Biblic și de Misiune al Bisericii Ortodoxe Române, București, 2007, pp.34–35</ref> and many churches, mosques, and synagogues were converted to secular uses.<ref name="BrezianuSpânu2010">{{cite book|last1=Brezianu|first1=Andrei|title=The A to Z of Moldova|accessdate=21 July 2016|date=26 May 2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|language=English|isbn=978-0-8108-7211-0|page=98|quote=Communist Atheism. Official doctrine of the Soviet regime, also called "scientific atheism." It was aggressively applied to Moldova, immediately after the 1940 annexation, when churches were profaned, clergy assaulted, and signs and public symbols of religion were prohibited, and it was applied again throughout the subsequent decades of the Soviet regime, after 1944. ... churches were either pulled down or turned into facilities designed to serve secular or even profane purposes ... the Transfiguration Cathedral (previously dedicated to St. Constantine and Helena) housed the city's planetarium.}}</ref>

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.<ref name="ReferenceA">http://countrystudies.us/albania/56.htm</ref> 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.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>World Christian trends, AD 30-AD 2200, p.230-246 Tables 4-10 By David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, Christopher R. Guidry, Peter F. Crossing</ref> Albania was the only country that ever officially banned religion.{{cn|date=April 2017}}

Authorities in the [[People's Republic of Romania]] aimed to move towards an atheistic society, in which religion would be considered as the ideology of the bourgeoisie; the régime also set to propagate among the laboring masses in science, politics and culture to help them fight [[superstition]] and [[mysticism]], and initiated an anti-religious campaign aimed to reducing the influence of religion in society.<ref>{{cite book|last1= Leustean|first1=Lucian|title=Orthodoxy and the Cold War: Religion and Political Power in Romania, 1947-65|date=2009|publisher=la University of Michigan|isbn=3447058749|page=92-93|url=|quote= One of the main aims of the regime was to transform Romania into a communist atheist society in which religion was considered the ideology of the bourgeoise. Thus in 1949, the Society for the Popularisation of Science and Culture was established. The main objective of this anti-religious society was 'to propagate among the labouring masses political and scientific knowledge to fight obscurantism, superstition, mysticism, and all other influences of bourgeois ideologies'. ...the regime's anti-religious campaign aimed to discredit the church and to reduce the influence of religion in society.}}</ref> After the communist takeover in 1948, some church personnel were imprisoned for political crimes.<ref name="Referenceb">January 23, 1999, issue of the London Tablet by Jonathen Luxmoore,  Published by Chesterton Review Feb/May 1999</ref>

The [[Khmer Rouge]] attempted to eliminate Cambodia's cultural heritage, including its religions, particularly Theravada Buddhism.<ref name="NYTi">[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE5DE163CF931A35752C0A964958260 Philip Shenon, Phnom Penh Journal; Lord Buddha Returns, With Artists His Soldiers] ''[[New York Times]]'' - January 2, 1992</ref> Over the four years of Khmer Rouge rule, at least 1.5 million Cambodians perished.  A mere three thousand Buddhist monks survived the Khmer Rouge horror.  There had been sixty thousand monks previously.<ref>[http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=ARTICLES&id=1092899381 Khmer Rouge: Christian baptism after massacres] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120123124744/http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=ARTICLES&id=1092899381 |date=January 23, 2012 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.crimesofwar.org/a-z-guide/cambodia/ CRIMES OF WAR]</ref>

*[[Thomas Paine]] (1737–1809), English-American author and [[Deism|deist]] who wrote a scathing critique on religion in ''[[The Age of Reason]]'' (1793-4). "All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish [i.e. Muslim], appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit".<ref>[[q:Thomas Paine]]</ref>

*[[Karl Marx]] (1818–1883), German philosopher, social scientist, socialist. He is well known for his antireligious views. He said religion was "[[The opium of the people|the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness.]]".<ref>Marx, K. 1976. ''[https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right]''. [[Marx/Engels Collected Works|Collected Works]], v. 3. New York.</ref>

*[[Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche]] (1844–1900), German philosopher, cultural critic, poet, composer, and Latin and Greek scholar. He wrote several critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy, and science, displaying a fondness for metaphor and irony.

*[[John Dewey]] (1859–1952), an American [[Pragmatism|pragmatist]] philosopher, who believed neither religion nor [[metaphysics]] could provide legitimate moral or social values, though scientific [[empiricism]] could (see [[science of morality]]).<ref>"Dewey felt that science alone contributed to 'human good,' which he defined exclusively in naturalistic terms. He rejected religion and metaphysics as valid supports for moral and social values, and felt that success of the scientific method presupposed the destruction of old knowledge before the new could be created. ... (Dewey, 1929, pp. 95, 145) "William Adrian, [https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15363750590925929 TRUTH, FREEDOM AND (DIS)ORDER IN THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY], ''Christian Higher Education', 4:2, 145-154</ref>

* [[Bertrand Russell]] (1872–1970), English logician and philosopher who believed that authentic philosophy could only be pursued given an atheistic foundation of "unyielding despair". In 1948, he famously debated the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] priest and [[History of philosophy|philosophical historian]] Father [[Frederick Copleston]] on the [[existence of God]].<ref>''"I think all the great religions of the world{{spaced ndash}}[[Buddhism]], [[Hinduism]], [[Christianity]], [[Islam]] and [[Communism]]{{spaced ndash}}both untrue and harmful. It is evident as a matter of logic that, since they disagree, not more than one of them can be true.&nbsp;... I am as firmly convinced that religions do harm as I am that they are untrue."'' Bertrand Russell in "My Religious Reminiscences" (1957), reprinted in ''The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell'' [http://russell.cool.ne.jp/beginner/DBR-K1E.HTM]</ref>

*[[Steven Pinker]] (born 1954), Canadian-American cognitive scientist who believes religion incites violence.<ref>"[T]he Bible, contrary to what a majority of Americans apparently believe, is far from a source of higher moral values. Religions have given us stonings, witch-burnings, crusades, inquisitions, jihads, fatwas, suicide bombers, gay-bashers, abortion-clinic gunmen, and mothers who drown their sons so they can happily be united in heaven." [http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/2004_10_29_religion.htm The Evolutionary Psychology of Religion], presentation by Steven Pinker to the annual meeting of the [[Freedom from Religion Foundation]], [[Madison, Wisconsin]], October 29, 2004, on receipt of “The Emperor’s New Clothes Award.”</ref>

*[[Nikita Khrushchev]], Soviet leader in 1953-64, who initiated, among other measures,<ref name="Ibiblio">http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/soviet.exhibit/anti_rel.html</ref><ref>{{cite journal |jstor=150643 |pages=374–386 |last1=Grossman |first1=J. D. |title=Khrushchev's Anti-Religious Policy and the Campaign of 1954|volume=24|issue=3|journal=Soviet Studies |year=1973 |doi=10.1080/09668137308410870}}</ref> the [[USSR anti-religious campaign (1958–1964)|1958-1964 Soviet anti-religious campaign]].

*[[Periyar E. V. Ramasamy]], Tamil politician, between 1938-73, who propagated the principles of rationalism, self-respect, women’s rights and eradication of caste in South India.