Atheism and Communism

[Belthasar727]

I'm a new guy here, by the way. ninja

Anyway, I am only mildly aware of there being a percieved relationship with communism and nontheism.

I know the church was persecuted and believers oppressed in the Soviet Union, and that Karl Marx rarely spoke of religion, but when he did it wasn't exactly in a positive light, apparently he thought of religion as a symptom of society's problems or something to that effect. I don't know if it's a "requirement" to be an atheist to be a communist (never asked one, an easy thing to do on Gaia).

So, there seems to have been an association between atheism and communism in the west. Maybe this was only true in the past, because I personally never have been accused of being a communist due to my lacking belief in god(s). Has anyone else? Maybe someone could shed more light on this topic?  

[Tenth Speed Writer]

Go read Children of the Storm by Natasha Vins.  

[Dathu]

I remember in history class, my teacher compared godlessness with comunism. But that was when I was in a Christian school. Since public education entered my life, I haven't really ever heard anyone compare Atheism with comunism.

The one thing I don't understand is, I though comunism, aside from being about all things be equal and equally distributed, was pro-homogony (spelling?), so I don't know why they would be anti-religion since religion would help unite and homogonize their country. Anybody care to explain that to me? question  

[ProjectOmicron88]

Much like atheism, communism is also given a bad label. It got that label because the U.S. "fought" it for half a century, during the cold war, and even Vietnam was a result of communism. The reason is because in a communist government, it's too easy for the government to take everything, and it moves towards fascism, which is, in fact, a bad thing. Communism looks good on paper, but when applied to reality, it just doesn't work.  

[The Amazing Mr. Tommyos!]

I'm frequently accused of being a communist. But that has more to do with the fact that I am a communist than my atheism.

Communism and Atheism don't necessarily go hand in hand, but some ex-presidents and those like him lump them both into that "un-american" category.