Televangelist Ray Comfort has a pretty hateful view of atheists. His latest book is called Fat Chance: Why Pigs Will Fly Before America has an Atheist President. He was interviewed by conservative radio host Janet Mefferd this week and he explained why he thinks atheists should never get any political power. He seemed to equate all atheists with communism when he said:
“Atheists have caused 110 million deaths in the last hundred years. Stalin, 60 million, he was an atheist. Mao, 40 million, and he was an atheist. Pol Pot, 1.7 million, he was an atheist. Vladimir Lenin, 5 million people slaughtered, he was an atheist. And so when people realize that, you can’t trust an atheist in a position of authority, especially politically. They may be nice people when you meet them in the street, but you give them power to do what they want and carry out their own agendas and you’re gonna find that they don’t have any moral high ground to stand on ‘cause they’re not standing on any whatsoever.”
Yes, these communists were atheists, but not all atheists are communist. These communists were using atheism to control people. Karl Marx said:
“Communism begins from the outset (Owen) with atheism, but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction.”
The only belief that every single atheist shares is the lack of a belief in God. We have varying political beliefs, scientific opinions, and everything else. Not all atheists believe the same thing.
There are Christian communists. They have a history going back centuries. Thomas Müntzer, a leader of the Peasant Revolution in the German states in the early sixteenth century said:
“It is an article of our creed, and one which we wish to realise, that all things are in common [omnia sunt communia], and should be distributed as occasion requires, according to the several necessities of all.”
Communism may even have roots in the Bible. Check out this verse:
“All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need” (Acts 2:44-45).
Also, this verse:
“Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (Second Corinthians 9:7).
Back to Mr. Comfort though, he was making a very weak argument that has been refuted many times before. Many people have falsely said that Hitler, Lenin, and Stalin were atheists who committed atrocities in the name of atheism. Hitler actually said:
“We were convinced that the people need and require this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations; we have stamped it out.”
Atheists do believe that our political leaders need to keep their religion out of it.
Here is a video of a YouTuber talking about the difference between Atheism and Communism:
