From: utzoo!decvax!yale-com!wagar Newsgroups: net.followup Title: Re: atheism vs. Communism Article-I.D.: yale-com.660 Posted: Mon Jan 17 12:59:59 1983 Received: Wed Jan 19 19:51:52 1983 References: hao.400 brunix.1226 Many people seem to misunderstand the term atheist. I quote: "there is nothing in the Communist philosophy about religion at all!" Well, there you have it -- Communism is an atheistic viewpoint, i.e. it is not theistic. This is unusual for political philosophies, since most are, but it in no way is a criticism of the Communist viewpoint. It is true that the term atheism has acquired a bucket-load of negative connotations, but it's meaning is pretty clear: "devoid of belief in whatever it is that theistic people believe in." This definition makes it pretty clear that if you aren't a theist, you're an atheist (it's like typical vs. atypical). Still, no one wants to be called an atheist, because people will assume you want to force your point of view on them and start burning down churches. What they don't realize is that intolerance is a religious trait, and therefore doesn't apply. Not at all afraid to say I'm an atheist, Steve Wagar decvax!yale-comix!wagar