Antireligion

en:Antireligion Common Cut (video) Synchronicity Truth (video)

Antireligion is opposition to en:religion of any kind. The term has been used to describe opposition to en:organized religion, 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 or not. Opposition to religion also goes beyond the 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. “ Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful ” —commonly attributed to Seneca but most likely due to Gibbon, Vol. I, Ch. 2, § 1; Critic of religion en:Christopher Hitchens was a well-known antireligionist of the 20th century who maintained opposition to religion, arguing that 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, including en:Christian, en:Islamic, en:Buddhist, en:Jewish, and en: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. Notable antireligious people See en-wiki for a maintained version of this §. See also Anti-Buddhism en:Anti-Catholicism en:Anti-Christian sentiment en:Anti-clericalism en:Anti-Islamism, as distinct from en:Islamophobia en:Anti-Judaism en:Anti-Mormonism en:Anti-Protestantism en:Conflict thesis en:Demographics of atheism en:Evidentialism en:Faith and rationality en:Freethought en:Objectivism (Ayn Rand) en:Persecution of Christians en:Relationship between religion and science en:Religious intolerance en:Religious persecution en:Religious segregation en:The Denial of Death References