Militant atheism has become a religion

[SpartanDem]

275. No, the adoption of atheism was a big part of why they were doing it.

Last edited Tue Apr 9, 2013, 03:12 AM - Edit history (3)

It was part of the broader ideology of communism. Within Marxism there were two camps, one said that religion could tolerated and would die naturally in a communist society. The other said religion should directly confronted, this is what Lenin believed and was generally the policy during the Soviet Union's existence. Groups like the League of Militant Atheist went about with deliberate propaganda campaigns to discourage religion. Their efforts were a failure, but it was not for a lack of trying. Pretty much every Marxist state has tried to discourage religion this includes China, Albania and Cuba. None of these countries ever did campaigns as sustained and brutal as the Soviets and countries that are still under communist rule have pretty much given up it.

Soviet officials heavily promoted scientific atheism. The doctrine was taught in schools, advocated in the media, and emphatically propagandized in books, posters, the arts, during holidays, and with celebrations.
Convinced atheists could join atheist organizations and meet on a regular basis in lieu of church
participation; the primary atheist organization was the League of Militant Atheists, which was
active prior to World War II and later replaced by the Knowledge Society. All in all, scientific
atheism was omnipresent in the daily lives of Communist citizens. Atheist propaganda and rituals, in combination with the brutal repression of Russian religious groups, produced an atheistic
“church” similar to a state-supported religious monopoly

http://www.thedivineconspiracy.org/Z3211C.pdf

The League of Militant Atheists[1] (Russian: Союз воинствующих безбожников Soyuz voinstvuyushchikh bezbozhnikov); Society of the Godless (Общество безбожников Obshchestvo bezbozhnikov); Union of the Godless (Союз безбожников Soyuz bezbozhnikov), was an atheistic and antireligious organization of workers and intelligentsia that developed in Soviet Russia under the influence of the ideological and cultural views and policies of the Communist Party in 1925–1947.[2] It "consisted of Party members, members of the Komsomol youth movement, workers and army veterans".[3]

The League embraced workers, peasants, students, and intelligentsia. It had its first affiliates at factories, plants, collective farms (kolkhoz), and educational institutions. By the beginning of 1941, it had about 3.5 million members of 100 nationalities. It had about 96,000 offices across the country. Guided by Bolshevik principles of antireligious propaganda and party's orders with regards to
religion, the League aimed at exterminating religion in all its manifestations and forming an anti-religious scientific mindset among the workers. It propagated atheism and scientific achievements, conducted 'individual work' (a method of sending atheist tutors to meet with individual believers to convince them of atheism, which could be followed up with public harassment if they failed to comply) with religious people, prepared propagandists and atheistic campaigners, published anti-religious scientific literature and periodicals, organized museums and exhibitions, conducted scientific research in the field of atheism and critics of religion. The League's slogan was "Struggle against religion is a struggle for socialism", which was meant to tie in their atheist views with economy, politics, and culture. One of the slogans adopted at the 2nd congress was "Struggle against religion is a struggle for the five year plan!"[4] The League had international connections; it was part of the International of Proletarian Freethinkers and later of the Worldwide Freethinkers Union.

The League was a "nominally independent organization established by the Communist Party to promote atheism." It published newspapers, journals, and other materials that lampooned religion; it sponsored lectures and films; it organized demonstrations and parades; it set up antireligious museums; and it led a concerted effort telling Soviet citizens that religious beliefs and practices were "wrong" and "harmful", and that "good" citizens ought to embrace a scientific, atheistic worldview.[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Militant_Atheists