Interbane wrote:"Stalin was number one in world history at enforcing atheism."And he committed atrocities in it's name? HA! Atheism wouldn't exist without a religion to be a-theistic of. The bottom line is religion is an exclusionary enterprise, same as racism and nationalism.
A key difference between Stalin and Dawkins is that Stalin was a practical atheist while Dawkins is a theoretical atheist.
Stalin actually applied atheism as a social doctrine, and came up against the reality that people need something to believe in as a collective way of understanding reality in simple terms, hence the cult of personality where Stalin himself was treated like God. It gets back to the old idea that when people stop believing in something they don't believe in nothing but rather in anything.
Dawkins by contrast presents a theoretical atheism that is suitable for an elite who are above the popular need for simple images. He gives no sense of purpose or direction, just a bleak picture of a meaningless universe. His ethical views could well be Christianity minus the metaphysics.
This contrast suggests to me that a much better strategy to achieve the atheist goals of a humanistic and evidence based world is to reform religious faith to make it compatible with atheist knowledge. Opposition to faith is a useless and elitist path. In fact, Christianity got its purchase in the Roman Empire precisely because it was inclusionary, and not exclusionary.
An interesting model is John Lennon, with his vision of a world without religion where love is the answer, as in his songs
Imagine and
Mind Games:
We're playing those mind games together, Pushing barriers, planting seeds, Playing the mind guerilla, Chanting the Mantra peace on earth, We all been playing mind games forever, Some kinda druid dudes lifting the veil. Doing the mind guerilla, Some call it the search for the grail, Love is the answer and you know that for sure, Love is flower you got to let it, you got to let it grow, So keep on playing those mind games together, Faith in the future outta the now, You just can't beat on those mind guerillas, Absolute elsewhere in the stones of your mind, Yeah we're playing those mind games forever, Projecting our images in space and in time, Yes is the answer and you know that for sure, Yes is the surrender you got to let it, you got to let it go, So keep on playing those mind games together, Doing the ritual dance in the sun, Millions of mind guerrillas, Putting their soul power to the karmic wheel, Keep on playing those mind games forever, Raising the spirit of peace and love, not war,
(I want you to make love, not war, I know you've heard it before)