Dear Readers,
I was thinking, AtheistNexus.org user Napoleon Bonaparte largely seems to believe that religious people are intellectually and inherently inferior in general as human beings to atheists and other non-religious individuals. I always just thought it was some form of sarcasm but as time went on, I came to think otherwise about his views. Now, I disagree with much of things that many religious people say and the manner in which they behave. However, I don't think that all religious people are intellectually inferior to atheists. Some religious people are uneducated and ignorant about subjects that they no little about or have no understanding of. We can change that with education, despite differences we may have with them. I don't feel comfortable with people like Napoleon implying that religious people are morally inferior to atheists. Sure, there are some religious people who do and say immoral things and we can certainly criticize them for that and avoid associating with such people if necessary. There are some atheists who are unintelligible and immoral people too. I'm an atheist and granted, I'm not the most educated person in the world and am certainly not a genius, I willingly admit that. Napoleon, I think really needs psychological help. He once suggested that religious people undergo forced sterilization and should be prevented from having too many children. I do agree with him that the world is overpopulated, however I am against forced sterilization. This sounds like something a Chinese Communist government official would say about families that have more than one daughter or something like that.
Coincidentally, many people often lump atheists and Communists together. Sure, many Communists are atheistic, but not all Communists are atheists. There have even been Christian Communists. Do your research. There are different types of Communism. Joseph Stalin's version of Communism was actively political, while there is also anarchistic Communism which rejects political authority and every other kind of authority while believing people should decide issues of morality with each other and not rely on any authority figure. It is not uncommon for anarchist Communists to live in communes together. I imagine that American Communists would probably be more afraid to come out of the closet today than atheists would. You know the phrase " In God We Trust" wasn't incorporated on American money until the 1950's while America was going through it's anti-Communist hysteria phase. It is true that Joseph Stalin did in fact impose atheism on the Russian people and that he sought to eliminate religious groups off of the face of the earth. He was raised Russian Orthodox, I believe. I think he was studying to become an Orthodox priest at the time he got into Communist ideology. I don't think Joseph Stalin was always an atheist, who really knows how he came to be an atheist ? I think that you can disagree with, criticize and challenge religion all you want, but to do what Stalin did isn't an option that I'm willing to support.
I think that state-imposed atheism is equally as bad as having a state-imposed religion. You know something, whenever a country imposes a certain religion on people, people tend to want nothing to do with that religion. Napoleon, he is from France just like the real Napoleon Bonaparte was. Now Napoleon the AtheistNexus.org user, he was raised religious, I'm not sure exactly what his experience was like being raised religious. I'm not sure, but I think he was raised as a Roman Catholic. I don't know why he thinks the way that he does. I had a mostly negative experience with the Jehovah's Witnesses for instance having been raised in that denomination from the time I was born, but you don't hearing say that they are inherently inferior to me. I do criticize many of their denominational beliefs and practices a lot on this particular blog and many people who read through here would notice that. I liked some of the individual JW's that I knew and still care about them as people of course. I just realized when I was growing up that I didn't fit in with them, that I disagreed with so much of that worldview and realized that when I was older that I should leave the Organization. I thought back then and still think now that it was the best choice that I could have made in regards to that particular situation. I had a mostly positive experience with the LDS Church (Orthodox Mormonism), yet I criticize many of their denominational beliefs and practices too, just like I do with the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Christian Scientists, Seventh-day Adventism, Pentecostalism or any of the other over 20 religious groups that I have been associated with.
I really wouldn't consider Napoleon to be a favorite of mine. I know it may not be nice to talk about him without him knowing it but many of the stuff that he says bothers me and I just feel that I should say something about it. Think about it.
Sincerely,
B.W.
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