The Rise and Fall of Scientific Atheism in Russia
Froese, P. (2004). Forced Secularization in Soviet Russia: Why an Atheistic Monopoly Failed. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 43, 35-50.
Abstract and conclusion is quoted further down. Below are just some comments and observations on Froese's paper.
Research like that of Froese is valuable in the sense it allows us to learn in some depth, the methods used by the heads of disbelief (أئمة الكفر) and self-designated false-gods (طواغيت) to invite others to their disbelief, and for us to relate the current to the past, as nothing changes fundamentally, only the cosmetics and appearances.
Comments & Observations:
01 The inherent, innate disposition to worship (fiṭrah) cannot be erased, not even by decades of sustained brainwashing in materialist, atheist philosophy, operating under the guise of science. Likewise, it cannot be erased through coercion, force, oppression and murder.
02 Bolshevik Communist Russia and Communist China were experiments funded by private banking interests in learning and analysing how to run nations through scientific dictatorship.
03 These people always learn from their mistakes and refine their strategies. They have institutions and think tanks for this purpose, which is where the real power lies in most disbelieving nations, especially in the US, UK and Europe. At present, their current rollout is the 4th Industrial Revolution, the Great Reset, and Transhumanism based on synthetic biology for technocratic rule.[1]
04 They have learned that making people disavow religion does not work (as the instinct is not fully erasable), and instead they now try to co-opt religion less so with atheism,, or with direct challenge and confrontation and more so with pseudo-religion, social justice ideologies and other matters, through indirect means by which the same ultimate objectives are intended.
Hence, environmentalism as a religion, global warming, climate change, Darwinian virology pseudoscience, faked pandemics, engineered wars, manufactured crises, alleged equality of various types (for sexes and sexual orientations), and so on. All of these issues are used to unite mankind, and they are made more important than the issue of true and false religion. A one world religion is desired and pursued through these affairs, and its umbrella is the Freemasonic Bahai pseudoreligion that was fabricated for this purpose.
05 In other words, scientific dictatorship (technocracy) founded upon pseudoscientific ideology with a Marxist, Collectivist structure is the goal. Western social democracies are being transformed into this. It has been chosen as the best form of rule with total control, something which scientific atheism was unable to achieve. You cannot promote and coerce scientific atheism as a belief (since it cannot stand its own ground). Something other than that, or more than it is needed, which does not do away with religion, but co-opts it, coming from side and back doors, not from the front door with open challenge to, denigration and rejection of religion, as this only insulates and consolidates religion, and makes it fight for survival.
Abstract
Under communism, the Russian religious landscape consisted mainly of two competitors—a severely repressed Russian Orthodox Church and a heavily promoted atheist alternative to religion called “scientific atheism.” Under these circumstances, one might expect the rapid spread of religious disbelief, but the intensity of the atheist campaign originated from official mandate and not popular appeal. In turn, scientific atheism never inspired the Russian population and grew increasingly uninspired as Soviet officials created a monopoly “church” of scientific atheism in hopes of replacing persistent religious beliefs and practices. This article is dedicated to explaining why Communists could not successfully convert the masses to atheism. The findings provide evidence that systems of belief require more than simply the power of promotion and coercion to become accepted.
Conclusion
The failure of scientific atheism in Russia is interesting because it had every advantage.
First, the Soviet government generously financed atheists while brutally suppressing religious advocates. For this reason, scientific atheism should be considered the equivalent of a religious monopoly.
Second, scientific atheism was promoted throughout Soviet Russia in schools, workplaces and the community. Finally, scientific atheism offered rituals, ceremonies and the promise of a utopian society as a direct alternative to religious offerings.
But the most generous estimates of atheistic belief show that less than one-quarter of Russians were atheists and this number dramatically drops to around 5 percent of the population after the fall of communism. In other words, scientific atheism was surprisingly unsuccessful when one considers all of its competitive advantages.
When one looks at how atheism was promoted and the actual tenets of scientific atheism its unpopularity proves less confusing.
First, the doctrine of scientific atheism was itself problematic. It confusingly claimed to be a science while abandoning scientific methods altogether. Actual scientists avoided the topic of religion and produced no work which could verify the science of atheism.
Second, scientific atheism replicated religious ceremonies, rituals, and produced a new communist sense of the sacred as an alternative to religion. This simply confused the population, many of whom mistook scientific atheism for a new religion and not an exit from religious belief altogether. So that even those few who wanted to believe in the ideals of atheistic communism simply ended up praying to the gods of Lenin and Stalin.
Finally, the messengers of scientific atheism themselves lacked credibility. Atheist proselytizers knew little about religion or science and their ignorance was apparent to their would-be converts.
Many of these problems stem from the fact that scientific atheism was an ideology imposed on a population from official channels. Communists did not attempt to engage the hearts and minds of would-be converts but expected individuals to simply bend to patently superficial beliefs.
In fact, communists forbid any active discussion concerning the weaknesses of scientific atheism even in the attempt to improve them. The ultimate indication that atheism never inspired the Russian people is that it virtually disappeared after the fall of communism.
In this, scientific atheism closely resembles the weakness and impotence of monopoly religions which rely on political favoritism for subsistence and become apathetic to the needs of their congregations. In contrast, successful religious movements continually evolve to suit their surroundings and address contemporary issues.
Successful branches of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all offer explanations concerning a myriad of social issues which have been formulated and refined by able theologians throughout centuries of discourse and debate. If compared, one can see that the unrefined and undeveloped ideas of scientific atheism never evolved to inspire or entice the public.
Nearly seven decades of anti-religious propaganda and atheist promotion could not secularize Russian society. Systems of belief, be they religious or atheistic, need to engage individuals in order to gain widespread acceptance. In the end, the attempt to force secularization in Soviet Russia was fundamentally insipid, the result of an atheistic monopoly which never questioned itself or addressed the concerns of its would-be converts.
Footnotes
1. One should note that technology is neutral and only takes moral value and evaluation based upon the ideology with which it is approached. Thus, emerging technologies can be of tremendous benefit if in the right hands, such as upright Muslim rulers. But they can also comprise tremendous evil, subjugation and oppression when in malevolent hands.