Rename group to "The Thought Police".

Also, why do you talk of your splendid workers' state in such a way that the reader is led to assume that it is an entity separate from the working class? And why must the state be so intolerant of religion? What you should be is anti-clerical, yo.

All religion is backwards and intolerant of new ideas. It promotes absolute devotion to a tyrannous god which wishes to enslave humanity and would punish us with eternal torment if we refused to follow him. It divides the people into opposing groups who all believe that their religion is the complete truth. It holds back progress and advancement and justifies it by saying "God does not want this!". Religion has always been hateful and intolerant. Even today many Christians are radically opposed to homosexuality, and in some parts of the Muslim world they would even dare to murder people for such things. Then there's Catholicism, which promotes absolute loyalty to the Pope, a theocratic absolute monarch. And now leftists are saying we should just accept this and tolerate religion? That's ridiculous. We have always opposed religion. Atheism was once a crucial part of Communism and sometimes leftism as a whole. The collapse of the USSR has made us desperate for support from whatever group we can find. Even those who would defend the USSR and believe that it was the greatest achievement of Socialism would not support state-endorsed atheism. It just amazes me how even the most radical of leftists treat religion as if it is completely harmless.

By the way, I don't support any laws against religion. I just want the socialist state to endorse Atheism and be very critical of religion. I'm not going to go around arresting people because they believe in god. If someone wishes to pray in their own home, then they may do so. Organised religion however just forces those beliefs upon others, and so it should be completely opposed by us leftists.

You say organised religion forces beliefs upon others (true), but wouldn't a state that promotes atheism be forcing beliefs upon other as well? If a state must exist, it has to be secular.

Possibly, but only to followers of organised religions. As I said before, someone who prays to god in their own home wouldn't have any problem. The state atheism and anti-theism would be mostly to combat organised religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism etc. A secular state would not be all that bad, as long as it is very much anti-clerical. Many leftists I've met seem to think that the state should be completely pro-religion, no matter what form it takes. That is not secularism, that's a state with a bias towards religion. Too many people expect Atheists to just ignore religion, when the very nature of it means that we have it forced upon us wherever we go.

Does that mean you have to 100% agree with what they say? No. Just be anti-clerical - oppose all hierarchical and often corrupt religious institutions. I suspect you might be mixing anti-theism and anti-clericalism up in some things you say. Anywho, my stay in this group is up.

I don't want to police people's thoughts. People can believe in religious nonsense if they want, just as they can believe in mistaken scientific or economic doctrines. The point is not to ban wrong ideas, but to promote correct ideas.

I am anti-clerical in the sense that I am opposed to both their religion and the power of clericy. Nonetheless I never propose to have anyone censored for having ridiculous ideas, though I can't speak for anyone else in this group (I just joined!).

I have a bit of a question/conundrum:

I come here as an atheist first, not a Marxist, though Marx's thoughts on religion are helpful.

I am encountering a great deal of reaction due to my own criticism on the Palestinians, any atheist reader of Hitchens or Pat Condell will totally understand this perspective on overly-theistic lunatics on all 3 sides (Jew, Christian, Muslim) making the situation unnecessarily unbearable. The PLO is very theistic, the entire argument is based around the land that is the Temple Mount/Dome of the Rock mosque. That land is a shithole, geographically speaking, but it is the holiest site earth for these theists, and the Iranians will press the Red Button to defend it. The fact also remains that Sharia law is the order of the day with these folks, not democracy, and the overwhelming dominance of theists in the leadership of the PLO and converse lack thereof atheist and socialist thinkers testifies to this.

Now I will say Israel has alot of blood on it's hands, but I am critical of both sides of the wall for making the whole situation unbearable for the rest of thus, we need to worry about Iran now because of this theistic pissing contest.

/

The thing to do is make an atheist religion just like the French Cult of Reason.