Antireligion is opposition to religion. Antireligion is distinct from atheism (the absence of a belief in deities) and antitheism (an opposition to belief in deities), although antireligionists may be atheists or antitheists. The term may be used to describe opposition to organized religion, or to describe a broader opposition to any form of belief in the supernatural or the divine.
History
According to historian Michael Burleigh, antireligion found its first mass expression in revolutionary France in response to organised resistance to "organised ... irreligion...an 'anti-clerical' and self-styled 'non-religious' state."
The Soviet Union directed antireligious campaigns at all faiths, including Christian, Islamic, Buddhist and Shamanist religions. In the 1930s, during the Stalinist period, the government destroyed church buildings or put them into secular use (as museums of religion and atheism, clubs or storage facilities), executed clergy, prohibited the publication of most religious material and persecuted some members of religious groups. Less violent attempts to reduce or eliminate the influence of religion in society were also carried out at other times in Soviet history. For instance, it was usually necessary to be an atheist in order to acquire any important political position or any prestigious scientific job; thus many people became atheists in order to advance their careers. Different sources disagree on the results of all this, with some claiming the death of 21 million Russian Orthodox Christians by the Soviet government, not including other religious groups or persecutions without killings, and other sources stating that only up to 500,000 Russian Orthodox Christians were persecuted by the Soviet government, not including other religious groups.
The atheist state of the People's Republic of Albania had an objective for the eventual destruction of all religion in Albania, including a constitutional ban on religious activity and propaganda. The government nationalised most property of religious institutions and used it for non-religious purposes. Religious literature was banned. Many clergy and theists were tried, tortured, and executed. All foreign Roman Catholic clergy were expelled in 1946. Albania was the only country that ever officially banned religion.
The Khmer Rouge attempted to eliminate Cambodia's cultural heritage, including its religions. In the process, its acolytes killed nearly 1.7 million people.
Notable anti-religious people
- Intellectuals
- David Hume (1711-1776), Scottish agnostic philosopher, known for his skepticism, who wrote that human reason is wholly inadequate to make any assumptions about the divine, whether through a priori reasoning or observation of nature.
- Thomas Paine (1737â€"1809), English-American author and deist who wrote a scathing critique on religion in the The Age of Reason (1793-4). "All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish [i.e. Muslim], appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit".
- Karl Marx (1818â€"1883), German philosopher, social scientist, socialist. He is well known for his anti-religious views. He called religion "the opium of the people".
- John Dewey (1859â€"1952), an American pragmatist philosopher, who believed neither religion nor metaphysics could provide legitimate moral or social values, though scientific empiricism could (see science of morality).
- Bertrand Russell (1872â€"1970), British logician and philosopher who believed that authentic philosophy could only be pursued given an atheistic foundation of "unyielding despair". In 1948, he famously debated the Jesuit priest and philosophical historian Father Frederick Copleston on the existence of God.
- Richard Dawkins (born 1941), English biologist, one of the "four horsemen" of New Atheism. He wrote The God Delusion, criticizing belief in the divine, in 2006.
- Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011), British-American author and journalist, wrote God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything in 2007
- Steven Pinker (born 1954), Canadian-American cognitive scientist who believes religion incites violence.
- Sam Harris (born 1967), American author and neuroscientist, who argues that religious moderation provides cover for dangerous fundamentalism.
- PZ Myers (born 1957), American biologist.
- Phil Zuckerman (born 1969), American sociologist.
- Politicians
- Vladimir Lenin, Soviet leader from 1917 until 1924, who, like most Marxists, believed all religions to be "the organs of bourgeois reaction, used for the protection of the exploitation and the stupefaction of the working class"
- Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader between 1924 to 1953
- Enver Hoxha, Albanian communist leader between 1944 and 1985
- Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet leader in 1953-64, who initiated, among other measures, the 1958-1964 Soviet anti-religious campaign.
- Others
- Bill Maher, who wrote and starred in Religulous, a 2008 documentary criticizing and mocking religion.
- Jim Jefferies, Australian comedian
- Marcus Brigstocke, British comedian
- George Carlin, American comedian
- James Randi, former magician, professional "debunker" of psychics, outspoken atheist and founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation.
- Philip Roth, contemporary Jewish-American novelist.