On Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 6:42 PM, Eugen Leitl <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 06:42:27AM +0530, ss wrote:
>> That takes me on to another question. How secular is communism? > Communism is per se orthogonal to religion, but for hysterical > raisins (materialism) all instances of 'communism' (totalitarian > socialism, really) have had a strong atheistic flavor. Yes, for self labelled "communist" governments. However some christians believe that true christians share everything with each other - christian communism which simply goes to your point that communism is per-se orthogonal to religion. > It's probably intrinsic to totalitarianism, as e.g. the 3rd Reich > (despite carrying mystic luggage of its own) considered religion > competition and persecuted it, inasmuch possible. I would argue that WWII Japan was both totalitarian and extremely religious with State Shinto being the official religion, and the Emperor being considered a living deity. -- Charles
