Originally Posted by Thunderstick
Similarities between Marxism (the philosophical premise of Communism) and Skepticism expressed on this thread

Anti-religious principles of Marxism https://www.marxist.com/marxism-religion-liberation-theology220701.htm

1.Marxists stand on the basis of philosophical materialism, which rules out the existence of any supernatural entity, or anything outside or "above" nature. There is, in fact, no need for any such explanation for life and the universe - least of all today. Nature furnishes its own explanations and it furnishes them in great abundance.
2. The latest discoveries have finally exploded the nonsense of Creationism.
3.So, in spite of all this scientific development, why does Religion still have a grip on the minds of millions? Religion offers men and women the consolation of a life after death.
4.Where religion teaches us to lift our eyes to the heavens, Marxism tells us to fight for a better life on earth. Marxists believe that men and women should fight to transform their lives and to create a genuinely human society which would permit the human race to lift itself up to its true stature. We believe that men and women have only one life, and should dedicate themselves to making this life beautiful and self-fulfilling. If you like, we are fighting for a paradise in this life, because we know there is no other.
5. Lenin also pointed out that Engels recommended that the revolutionary party should carry out a struggle against religion: "The party of the proletariat demands that the state shall declare religion a private matter, but it does not for a moment regard the question of a fight against the opium of the people - the fight against religious superstition, etc., - as a private matter. The opportunists have so distorted the question as to make it appear that the Social Democratic Party regards religion as a private matter." Lenin on Religion pg 18
6.In the struggle of science against religion - that is to say, the struggle of rational thought against irrationality - Marxism sides wholeheartedly with science.
7. From the Communist manifesto:Question 22. Do Communists reject existing religions?
Answer: All religions which have existed hitherto were expressions of historical
stages of development of individual peoples or groups of peoples. But
communism is that stage of historical development which makes all existing
religions superfluous and supersedes them.
8.Vladimir Lenin was highly critical of religion, saying in his book Religion:
Atheism is a natural and inseparable part of Marxism, of the theory and practice of scientific socialism.[7]
In The Attitude of the Workers’ Party to Religion, he wrote:
Religion is the opium of the people: this saying of Marx is the cornerstone of the entire ideology of Marxism about religion. All modern religions and churches, all and of every kind of religious organizations are always considered by Marxism as the organs of bourgeois reaction, used for the protection of the exploitation and the stupefaction of the working class.[8]

Now notice the clear difference between Marxist/Skeptics views of Deity and morals and those of our Founders.

... the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal l, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

...appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world

...a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,

Everyone who signed this document believed in:
1. laws of nature--meaning they are universal and absolutes wherever there is nature (the Bible speaks of this also)
2. Nature's God--the Cosmos has a ruler who establishes the laws of nature
3. truths to be self-evident -- beyond all reasonable debate or skepticism
4. a self-evident truth is -- all men are created equally
5. a self evident truth -- that the Creator bestowed rights upon men--such as life liberty and the pursuit of happiness
6. God is the supreme judge of all causes
7. The invocation of Divine aid is essential in their cause


In looking at what has been posted on this thread the Skeptic beliefs are much more closely aligned with Marxism than what our founders all signed. In fact most of the skeptics on this thread could not honestly sign the Declaration based on what they posted. Based on the clear evidence of this thread, we have a right:

1. to be skeptical of whether they espouse the American principles of free government
2. to be skeptical of the value of their belief in our free societies that are based on God given freedoms
3. to be skeptical of the scholarship which underlies their belief system- because we like our founders believe Creation and moral absolutes are self evident and beyond reasonable debate




Wow + P.

Git a gryp, dude.