Talk:Militant atheism/July2011Razor

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Militant atheism is a term applied to atheism which is militantly hostile towards religion. British philosopher Julian Baggini describes an atheistic active hostility to religion as militant and says hostility "requires more than just strong disagreement with religion — it requires something verging on hatred and is characterized by a desire to wipe out all forms of religious belief." Militant atheists, Baggini continues, "tend to make one or both of two claims that moderate atheists do not. The first is that religion is demonstrably false or nonsense, and the second is that it is usually or always harmful." As such, Kerry S. Walters states that militant atheism differs from moderate atheism because it sees belief in God as pernicious. In the same vein, militant atheism, according to Karl Rahner, regards itself as a doctrine to be propagated for the happiness of mankind and combats every religion as a harmful aberration; militant atheism differs from the philosophy of theoretical atheism, which he states, may be tolerant and deeply concerned.

Militant atheism was an integral part of the materialism of Marxism-Leninism, and significant in the French Revolution, atheist states such as the Soviet Union,  and Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. According to Baggini, the "too-zealous" militant atheism found in the Soviet Union was characterized by thinking the best way to counter religion was "by oppression and making atheism the official state credo."

However, the term militant atheist has been used going back to at least 1894, and it has been applied to political thinkers. Recently the term militant atheist has been used, often pejoratively, to describe leaders of the New Atheism movement, who share a belief that religion "should not simply be tolerated but should be countered, criticized and exposed by rational argument wherever its influence arises." The appellation has also been criticized by some activists, such as Dave Niose, who feel that the term is used indiscriminately for "an atheist who had the nerve to openly question religious authority or vocally express his or her views about the existence of God."

Soviet Bloc


Militant atheism was effectively the state religion of the Soviet Union, with the Communist Party functioning as an established church. The militant atheism of the Bolsheviks owed its origins not just to the "standard Marxist feeling that religion was the opium of the masses", but also to the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church had "always been a pillar of czarism." The goal of the Soviet Union was the liquidation of religion and the means to achieve this goal included the destruction of churches, mosques, synagogues, mandirs, madrasahs, religious monuments, as well the mass deportation to Siberia of believers of different religions. Under the Soviet doctrine of separation of church and state, detailed in the Constitution of the Soviet Union, churches in the Soviet Union were forbidden to give to the poor or carry on educational activities. They could not publish literature since all publishing was done by state agencies, although after World War II the Russian Orthodox Church was given the right to publish church calendars, a very limited number of Bibles, and a monthly journal in a limited number of copies. Churches were forbidden to hold any special meetings for children, youth or women, or any general meetings for religious study or recreation, or to open libraries or keep any books other than those necessary for the performance of worship services. Furthermore, under militant atheist policies, Church property was expropriated. Moreover, not only was religion banned from the school and university system, but pupils were to be indoctrinated with atheism and antireligious teachings.  For example, schoolchildren were asked to convert family members to atheism and memorize antireligious rhymes, songs, and catechisms, while university students who declined to propagate atheism lost their scholarships and were expelled from universities. Severe criminal penalties were imposed for violation of these rules. By the 1960s, with the fourth Soviet anti-religious campaign underway, half of the amount of Russian Orthodox churches were closed, along with five out of the eight seminaries. In addition, several other Christian denominations were brought to extinction [destroyed?], including the Baptist Church, Methodist Church, Evangelical Christian Church, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Before the Russian Revolution, there were more than fifty thousand Russian Orthodox clergymen, by 1939, there were no more than three to four hundred clerical positions left. In the year 1922 alone, under the militant atheistic system, 2691 secular priests, 1962 monks and 3447 nuns were martyred for their faith. Due to the militant atheistic campaigns against Judaism, the religion was inaccessible to its followers; most Soviet Jews focused on a national identity, which fueled a mass dissident movement. Marxist-Leninist militant atheism resulted in the administrative elimination of the clergy, the housing of atheist museums where churches had once stood, the sending of many religious people to prisons and concentration camps, a continuous stream of propaganda, and the imposing of atheism through education (and forced re-education through torture at various prisons). Specifically, by 1941, 40,000 Christian churches and 25,000 Muslim mosques had been closed down and converted into schools, cinemas, clubs, warehouses and grain stores, or Museums of Scientific Atheism. Oscar J. Hammen, an American historian, classified Engels as a militant atheist, although the Soviet professor, N. Lobkowicz, challenged the assertion that Marx was a militant atheist. The ascent of the Bolsheviks to power in 1917 "meant the beginning of a campaign of militant atheism." and in 1922 Lenin, himself a militant atheist, referred with approval to "militant atheist literature" and demanded that the journal Pod Znamenem Marksizma "must be a militant atheist organ", explaining that he meant militant 'in the sense of unflinchingly exposing and indicting all modern “graduated flunkeys of clericalism”, irrespective of whether they act as representatives of official science or as free lances calling themselves “democratic Left or ideologically socialist” publicists'. In 1923, the Bezbozhnik ("Atheist", or "Godless") magazine appeared, around which the "Union of the Friends of the Bezbozhnik" was formed in 1924. The organization, renamed the League of Militant Atheists (???? ???????????? ???????????, Soyuz voinstvuyushchikh bezbozhnikov) in 1929, along with the Tatar Union of the Militant Godless, carried out anti-religious propaganda at the grassroots level. In 1941, soon after the Nazi invasion of the USSR, the newspaper closed, and in 1947 the society itself folded, the task of the anti-religious propaganda being transferred to the more neutrally named All-Union Society for the Dissemination of Political and Scientific Knowledge (?????????? ???????? ?? ??????????????? ???????????? ? ??????? ??????). Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Soviet concentration camp survivor, wrote of the The Union of the Militant Godless, stating that its members "went on rampages, blew out candles, and smashed icons with axes." The society in its turn was in 1963 renamed to simply Obshchestvo "Znanie" (???????? "??????", The All-Union Knowledge Society). Since 1959 the All-Union Knowledge Society has published a monthly journal called Nauka i Religya (Science and Religion) which, during the Soviet era, described itself as "a fighting organ of militant atheism", rejecting the view that religion would disappear of itself. In 1961 the Ukrainian branch produced a similar journal called Militant Atheist (Voivnichy Ateist).

In general, scientists and party philosophers in the Soviet Union worked to establish a view of science acceptable to Marxist-Leninist philosophy. In addition to the antireligious substance of each course, the curriculum from the universities in the Soviet Union presented scientific findings correct or incorrect based on their supposed ideological positions, not on the objective, applied, and experimental essence of science. Some Soviet militant atheists also believed science disproved religion because God remained unseen, his miracles were never subject to empirical verification, and certain religious stories were scientifically inconceivable. Bruce Sheiman, himself a leader in the Atheist 3.0 movement, has criticized militant atheism for asserting this belief that science is capable of determining the existence of God.

Joseph McCabe, who has himself been called a militant atheist, wrote in 1936 that "Russia is doing the finest and soundest reconstructive work of our time, and it is doing this, not only without God, but on a basis of militant Atheism." However, militant atheism failed to eradicate Christianity, which resulted, starting in 1939, in the reopening of churches, the abandonment of the atheist teaching in schools, and the restoration of the seven day week. Moreover, John W. Garver observes that the collapse of the Soviet Union ended the dominance of militant atheism over South-Central Asia and led to the reemergence of Islam in the region.

Kyrgyzstan
In 1929, when Soviet officials established the Militant Atheist-Marxist Association in the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic, over 1,800 clerics—Christian priests, Jewish rabbis, and Muslim mullahs—were denied their electoral rights. Despite this, Jews worshiped in secrecy.

Moldova
In Moldova, according to Mihaela Robila, during "the several decades of state-sponsored militant atheism, drastic methods were used" to prohibit the "expression of religious life"; such methods included the "forcible destruction of religious monuments, liquidation of churches, and mass deportation" of believers of different religions to Siberia.

French Revolution
Counter-Enlightenment writers frequently charged the philosophes with militant atheism which sought to destroy the Church and the monarchical form of government." Two prominent militant atheists of the French Revolution included Jacques Hébert and Baron Anacharsis Cloots, who both advocated the dechristianisation of France . Cloots, says Alister McGrath, did not believe in religious tolerance. He vigorously campaigned for the atheistic Cult of Reason, which was officially proclaimed on 10 November 1793. According to James Gray, Thomas Holcroft, an English militant atheist, was instrumental in founding the London Corresponding Society in 1792, "whose main aim was to connect with radical elements in Paris in the same year".

PRC and the Cultural Revolution
The People's Republic of China is an atheist state, as atheism is officially endorsed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party. When the People's Republic of China was established, militant atheism compelled the Party to impose control on and limit religious suppliers. As a result, foreign missionaries were expelled from the nation. Furthermore, major religions including Buddhism, Daoism, Islam and Christianity were co-opted into national associations, while minor sects were labelled as reactionary organisations and were therefore banned.

However, during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, a new form of militant atheism made great efforts to eradicate religion completely. Under this militant atheism espoused by Mao Zedong, houses of worship were shut down; Buddhist pagodas, Daoist temples, Christian churches, and Muslim mosques were destroyed; artifacts were smashed; and sacred texts were burnt. Moreover, it was a criminal offence to even possess a religious artifact or sacred text. However, following the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, many former policies towards religious freedom returned although they are limited and tenuous, as religion is closely regulated by the government.

According to philosopher Julia Ching, the Falun Gong religion was seen by Jiang Zemin, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, as an ideological threat to militant atheism and historical materialism.

History
Sociologist Rodney Stark describes Thomas Hobbes and the other originators of the 'social "scientific" study of religion' as "militant opponents of religion" whose "militant atheism...was motivated partly by politics". The 19th-century political activist Charles Bradlaugh was a militant atheist,   and is often credited as the first militant atheist in the history of Western civilization. The term has also been applied to other 19th-century political thinkers such as Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach, Annie Besant,  and Schopenhauer. A significant atheist movement known as the Holbachians, disciples of militant atheist Baron d'Holbach, opposed Judaism, Christianity and Deism.

The Polish religious leader Stefan Wyszynski decided during his imprisonment (1953–1956) "to defend the faith of the nation against militant atheism by means of the power of the Virgin Mary."

In 1952 philosopher Herbert W. Schneider, when writing on Religion in 20th Century America, wrote of the "few remaining militant atheists" in the United States.

Italian Socialist movement
Benito Mussolini was a militant atheist in his early life. Like other socialists of the Romagna, Mussolini adopted the militant atheism of the Italian Socialist movement. In his later life, however, Mussolini signed a Concordat with the Church in order to consort with the bishops who blessed the Fascist banners.

Today
Figures in the 21st century in the USA and the UK who have been described as militant atheists include Michael Newdow. The Argentinian Supreme Court Judge Carmen Argibay also describes herself as a "militant atheist", and the journalist and campaigner Paul Foot has been labelled a militant atheist. Moreover, comedian Kathy Griffin identifies herself as a militant atheist.

==New Atheism== The term militant atheist, has been used to criticize the New Atheism movement. Andrew Fiala, Professor of Philosophy at California State University, in a paper published in the academic journal "International Journal for Philosophy of Religion", refers to authors Harris, Dawkins, and Hitchens as militant atheists. Fiala writes "Atheists such as Harris, Dawkins, and Hitchens think that now is the time to finally be done talking about God. Much of this recent critique of religion is based upon the claim that atheism is true and that the claims of religion are false. Such an approach is often dogmatic in its assertion of cognitive superiority". Fiala agrees with those he terms militant atheists that literal religious claims are false, noting that "The unsophisticated sky-god theology and the Biblical literalism that is the focus of much of these atheists’ criticism is a straw man that is easily (and rightly) rejected" but proposes a pragmatic approach to religious belief. Paul Davies, an English physicist, defines a form of Christian atheism as being anti-militant-atheism, defining militant atheism as Dawkins' and Hitchens' position "to convince people that God doesn't exist as the most important intellectual task in our society." The same phenomenon takes place in works published by the academic journal titled "Studies: an Irish Quarterly Review," and "The Literary Review," as well as in academic literature, such as the Rowman & Littlefield published The Secularization Debate, and the Sydney University Press published Politics and Religion in the New Century, for example.

These individuals have been labelled as militant atheists by other atheists such as Andrew Fiala who states that the 'claim that all religion is poisonous is linked to the final problem with the new breed of militant atheists: intolerance toward religion. It is this characteristic that leads me to call these new atheists “militant".' Michael Ruse, and Bruce Sheiman, a leader in the Atheism 3.0 movement, who stated that "when militant atheists portray religion, they critique every political and organizational misdeed that can be attributed to it" but "portray science in idealized terms, untainted by commercial interests, political intrusions, and ethical conundrums." Richard Dawkins has, in turn, compared Ruse to "Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister best known for his appeasement policy toward Nazi Germany." Other articles in the popular media make reference to the leaders representing the New Atheism movement as militant atheists.

Media
Journalist Charles Moore in the Daily Telegraph, authored an article entitled "Militant atheists: too clever for their own good", which discussed Richard Dawkins, and mentioned Christopher Hitchens and A. C. Grayling; the author felt that the atheist movement may be acquiring the characteristics of "intolerance, dogmatism, righteousness, moral contempt for one's opponents." Moore also interpreted Dawkins as promoting the idea that atheism is "a superior order of being". In the same newspaper, Raj Persaud categorised Richard Dawkins as a militant atheist, and said he was "famously virulent views on religion, attacking it as a 'virus of the mind' and an 'infantile regression'."

The editor of Quadrant Magazine, a literary and cultural journal, also refers to Dawkins in these terms, and suggests that Dawkins' views are an extreme example of intolerance.

British writer Theo Hobson in The Guardian claims that "criticisms levelled at religion by militant atheists are often crude and short-sighted". Dawkins has responded to criticisms that he is hostile towards religion, saying "such hostility as I or other atheists occasionally voice toward religion is limited to words" and "It is all too easy to confuse fundamentalism with passion. I may well appear passionate when I defend evolution against a fundamentalist creationist, but this is not because of a rival fundamentalism of my own."

General
Melanie Phillips, a British author, suggests that militant atheism "in junking religion, has destroyed our sense of anything beyond our material selves and the here and now" and "paved the way for the onslaught on bedrock moral values ... and intimidation and bullying to drive this agenda into public policy".

Simon Blackburn writes that "many professional philosophers, including ones such as myself who have no religious beliefs at all, are slightly embarrassed, or even annoyed, by the voluble disputes between militant atheists and religious apologists". Though he presents no specific criticism of militant atheism, for him, both sides of the debate were presented better by David Hume in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, which he then explicates.

Decca Aitkenhead writes that the atheist movement has been accused of "adopting a tone so militant as to alienate potential supporters, and fortify the religious lobby."

Humanism
Paul Kurtz, considered by many to be the founder of secular humanism, has criticized militant atheists in that "they resist any effort to engage in inquiry or debate" and militant atheism as "becom[ing] mere dogma." Kurtz has criticized the militant atheism of the Soviet Union, which he stated "persecuted religious beleivers, confiscated church properties, executed or exiled tens of thousands of clerics, and prohibited believers to engage in religious instruction or publish religious materials" and praised Mikhail Gorbachev's "dismantling such policies by permitting greater freedom of religious conscience...moving from militant atheism to tolerant humanism." Kurtz cited the commitment to "human freedom and democracy" as humanism's basic difference from the militant atheism of the Soviet Union, which consistently violated basic human rights. Kurtz also stated that the "defense of religious liberty is as precious to the humanist as are the rights of the believers."

Criticism of the term
Catherine Fahringer of the Freedom From Religion Foundation suggested that the label militant was often routinely applied to atheist for no good reason – "very much as was the adjective 'damn' attached to the noun 'Yankee' during the Civil War." The linguist Larry Trask suggests that the word militant "is used all too freely in the feebler sense of 'holding or expressing views which are unpopular or which I don't like'." He notes that Richard Dawkins is "accused by tabloid newspapers and other commentators of being a 'militant atheist'", for saying he doesn't like religion. However, according to Trask, activity engaged in by some Christians, such as knocking on strangers' doors "demanding to talk about the Bible", never seems to "draw forth the label 'militant'."

AC Grayling writes that the charges of militant atheism are pronounced by theists; he states that "when the boot was on their foot they burned us at the stake. All we're doing is speaking very frankly and bluntly and they don't like it." Grayling also likens the appellation 'militant atheist' to that of 'militant non-stamp collector.' All we're doing is speaking very frankly and bluntly and they don't like it." Oliver Burkeman has suggested that it is not the case that Grayling is motivated by nothing but a dispassionate quest for the truth, rather he is actively promoting a position, motivated by more than the mere fact that there isn’t a god, and that Grayling is doing more than just not collecting stamps.

In Open Questions: Diverse Thinkers Discuss God, Religion, and Faith, Luis Rodrigues writes "I'm not quite sure what a militant atheist is. Every atheist I've ever talked to always says the same thing: 'I don't care what other people believe; I just don't want them to force it on me.'"