2010/1/10 RobertHoltzman <[email protected]> > On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 01:02:13PM -0500, Hal Vaughan wrote: > > > > Yeah, it's a good thing atheist regimes never do purges of religious > groups. We know that's never happened. > > Care to name one (just for my own education)? > > -- > Bob Holtzman
Bob, Hal's sarcasm is, alas, justified - revolutionary regimes revolting against an *ancien régime* that, as all such regimes did, used religion as a buttress for its rule, have frequently purged not merely those guilty of crimes, but all believers. By making atheism the ideological pillar of the new regime, those who weren't atheists were defined by as the Other ; thus the new regimes repeated the same pattern of oppression as their predecessors. A casual knowledge of the history of the 20th century will suffice to call forth examples. But this discussion is not relevant to the concerns of this list, and should be carried on elsewhere.... Henri Henri
