View source for Antireligion

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'''Antireligion''' is opposition to [[:en:religion]] of any kind and is more fundamental in its opposition than [[:en:Anti-clericalism]].<br> .<ref>{{cite web|title=Anti-religion|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anti-religion|website=Merriam-Webster Dictionary|publisher=Merriam-Webster Online|archivedate=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|archivedate=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 [[:en:organized religion]], [[:en:religious ritual|religious practices]] or [[:en:religious institutions]]. This term has also been used to describe opposition to specific forms of supernatural worship or practice, whether organized [[:en:spiritual but not religious|or not]]. Opposition to religion also goes beyond the [[:en:Misotheism|misotheistic]] spectrum. As such it is distinct from deity-specific positions such as [[:en:atheism]] (the absence of a belief in deities) and [[:en:antitheism]] (an opposition to belief in deities), although "antireligionists", a neologism as of 2017, sfaik, may also be atheists or antitheists.  
<blockquote style="position: relative;left: -100px;width:900px;">{{Cquote|Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful }}
<div align=right>&mdash;commonly attributed to [[:en:Seneca the Younger|Seneca]] but probably [[:en:Edward Gibbon|Gibbon]], Vol. I,  <span class=plainlinks style="color: lime;">[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#chap02.1 Ch. 2, &sect; I &para; 1]</span> <ref>As you might expect since Atheism doesn't really appear fully formed in the West until the late 18th century with d'Holbach.</ref></div>
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= <span style="color: navy;">Thesis</span> =
This &sect; which was first written as a response on the enwiki article talk page where an [[:en:The_Antichrist_(book)#Decree_against_Christianity|ancestral argument]] by Nietzsche was noted, is the basis of the next &sect;.
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== <span style="color: navy;">Definition</span>  ==
A religion is a culturally dependent belief system.
== <span style="color: navy;">Premise</span>  ==
Science/Reason is the one belief system that can produce objective truth about the real world.
== <span style="color: navy;">Corollary</span>  ==
Science is not culturally dependent, it is valid for all real beings everywhere and at all times.
== <span style="color: navy;">Conclusion</span>  ==
A religion until it becomes something other than a belief system is a false one that may be prevalent in primitive cultures that have not yet achieved material rationality.

== <span style="color: navy;">Imperative</span>  ==

Since having a false fundamental belief system is bad in a way virtually nothing else in an otherwise healthy organism can be, a moral/ethical individual will be anti-religious to the extent that they will seek the earliest possible resolution of any religion still posing as a system of objective belief into a vessel of cultural heritage.

=<div align=right><span style="text-align: right; color: navy;">As a Positive Substantive</span></div>=
<blockquote style="background-color: white;"><blockquote><br>
 "Antireligion" as noted before, could refer to a reconstruction, if you will, of the thing which is generally regarded as a fundamental human impulse in a manner that doesn't suffer from the defects above observed in all the current religions known to me. While the better ones don't assert belief about counterfactual states of affairs in the physical world, they still fail the not even wrong test. In this &sect; I sketch some expectations of such an Antireligion.
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*To be consistent with rather than opposed to science and true knowledge, our Antireligion must not assert beliefs about the world including relations between between beings but rather find them out (delegated to the relevant scientific discipline, if it exists and functions properly).<br><br>  
*It must address the same concerns as religions do and further it must do so better (as would be expected if the calumny of "a lie at the heart of being" were redacted):<br><br>
** The will and desire to overcome animal death.
** Relations between human beings and between Man and other living beings, in particular ...
** ... technologically superior beings, in the distant universe (if they were able to communicate with us since we currently lack even the ability to conceive of how to communicate with them in real time).<br><br>
* It follows from the first bullet above that it will have a strong aspect of [[:en:methodological solipsism|methodological solipsism]].<br><br>
* OTOH, societies may be judged on the basis of their belief systems, the quality thereof and their adherence to or lack thereof. A society with no fundament in belief is ill founded. Further, pursuant to the thesis above, a [[:en:categorical imperative|categorical imperative]] exists to find out and assert the sort of system of belief and social order which may be expected to hold for sentient beings everywhere, create it if does not yet exist, find and join it if it does.
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=  <span style="color: navy;">Historical Perspectives</span> =

A redact I made of the version of this &sect; I found divided it into Freedom of Religion and Freedom from Religion, since iirc, it was mostly about excesses of state atheism. Restoring that division.

== <span style="color: navy;">Freedom of Religion</span> ==

Freedom is surely an illusion if it is an opportunity to do something grossly not in your own best interests. Nonetheless if people are truly free then they are free to do themselves ( but not others ) harm. Religions are not observed to be personal, private systems of belief, but rather ones whose adherents seek to expand or maintain a group of co-believers.

If they were private, personal, then there would be no need to protect them by various laws. It is in this sense that the religious generally understand Freedom of Religion, i.e. as a protected right to pursue their beliefs, often including imposing them on others such as their minor children.

== <span style="color: navy;">Freedom from Religion</span> ==

An early form of mass antireligion was expressed during the [[:en:Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], as early as the 17th century. [[:en: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. According to historian [[:en:Michael Burleigh]], antireligion found its first mass expression of barbarity in [[:en:French Revolution|revolutionary France]] as "organised ... irreligion...an 'anti-clerical' and self-styled 'non-religious' state" responded violently to religious influence over society.<ref>[[:en:Michael Burleigh]] ''Earthly Powers'' p 96-97 ISBN 00-719572-9</ref> [[:en:Criticism of religion|Critic of religion]] [[:en:Christopher Hitchens]] was a well-known antireligionist of the 20th century who maintained opposition to religion, arguing that [[:en:Freedom of speech|free expression]] and scientific discovery should replace religion as the method of teaching [[:en:ethics]] and defining human civilization.

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

The [[:en:Soviet Union]] adopted the political ideology of [[:en: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| archivedate=2017-04-25}} </ref> including [[:en:Christian]], [[:en:Islamic]], [[:en:Buddhist]], [[:en:Jewish]], and [[:en:Shamanist]] religions. In the 1930s, during the [[:en: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.

=  <span style="color: navy;">Notable antireligious people</span> =

See en-wiki for a maintained version of this &sect;.

=  <span style="color: navy;">See also</span> =
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* [[:en:Anti-Buddhism (disambiguation)|Anti-Buddhism]]
* [[:en:Anti-Catholicism]]
* [[:en:Anti-Christian sentiment]]
* [[:en:Anti-clericalism]]
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* [[:en:Anti-Islamism]], as distinct from [[:en:Islamophobia]] 
* [[:en:Anti-Judaism]]
* [[:en:Anti-Mormonism]]
* [[:en:Anti-Protestantism]]
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* [[:en:Conflict thesis]]
* [[:en:Demographics of atheism]]
* [[:en:Evidentialism]]
* [[:en:Faith and rationality]]
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* [[:en:Freethought]]
* [[:en:Objectivism (Ayn Rand)]]
* [[:en:Persecution of Christians]]
* [[:en:Relationship between religion and science]]
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* [[:en:Religious intolerance]]
* [[:en:Religious persecution]]
* [[:en:Religious segregation]]
* [[:en:The Denial of Death]]
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= <span style="color: navy;">References</span> =
{{reflist|2}}
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