Was Joseph Stalin an atheist?

[Keithzworld]

And what were is motivations for doing what he did?

[hackenslash]

He was an atheist, but not always. He was originally training to enter seminary.

As for his motivations, he basically took the philosophical principles of Marx, and the machinery of Lenin, and twisted then out of shape. In the end, he was following a doctrinal imperative very similar to a religion. There's a really good book by Richard Overy called The Dictators which is a comparative history of Russia under Stalin and Germany under Hitler. It's quite a unique way of viewing them, and exposes a good deal of the differing philosophies arriving at the same result.

[Martin TK]

I think the larger, more important question is "Did Stalin's atheism cause him to do the evil that he did?"  The answer would be NO of course, the reason that communism was anti-religion wasn't because they hated religion, although they were atheist, but because the church in Russia was a threat to their power.  Communists could not have the Christian or any religion competing with their absolute power.  So, the evils done to the Church in Russia was done not because of atheism, but because of simply removing all threats to the Party.  The Party also attacked intellects, writers, and anyone else who threatened the Party.

[Tanker]

People always seem to forget the millions of Atheists, non-believers, and agnostics that were also killed. It wasn't religious bias it was a power bias. As in if it's not a state controlled power we're biased and will kill it. Power corrupts absolute power corrupts absolutly.

[The Magic Pudding]

Stalin's atheism cause him to do the evil that he did?"  The answer would be NO of course

Some would argue being released from religious moral restrictions freed him to do evil.
Atrocities of the religious weaken this argument.
I wonder if someone being indoctrinated early in life who later rejects the belief, may also strongly reject it's moral values.
I don't think a normal person would necessarily do this so dramatically, but I have never heard uncle Joe called normal.
Some people promote secular ethics for young people on this basis.

[pinkocommie]

Stalin's atheism cause him to do the evil that he did?"  The answer would be NO of course

Some would argue being released from religious moral restrictions freed him to do evil.

Those people would be fools.

[karadan]

I don't think any theist hell-bent on proving atheism is the root of all evil will ever understand how simple atheism really is. In their mind, atheism is as proactive as any hardcore religion and the motivations of its 'followers' are as sycophantic as anything religion has to offer. Just trying to give a simple explanation of the reality of things will never work (or so i've found from personal experience) and that the simple non-belief in a deity isn't an automatic catalyst to start raping and pillaging.

It must be a difficult subject to wrap one's mind around if all you've done your entire life is be subservient to an omnipresent malicious bastard.

[The Magic Pudding]

Stalin's atheism cause him to do the evil that he did?"  The answer would be NO of course

Some would argue being released from religious moral restrictions freed him to do evil.

Those people would be fools.

I can imagine a Stalin who is a total believer in religion, the pits of hell sin and the rest.
If this Stalin looses his faith I can imagine him rebounding into a nihilist state without morals.
Another faithless Stalin may have seen the church as a good career for a young psychopath.

Religion does seem to affect peoples behaviour.
Isn't that a major reason it was invented?
The guys in charge want to maintain order.
They don't want people murdering and coveting their neighbour’s ass.

As a teenager I was struck by the hypocrisy of the Christian crusaders going off slay the heathens.
Conquistadors in the new world, inquisition in the old.
I've long known Christians do evil in god’s name, or regardless of god, or they feigned belief.

I'm still not convinced belief didn't reign in some extreme behaviour.
Large medieval battles didn't often result in total slaughter, but there could be practical reasons for that.
Imagine a young Christian soldier is ordered to slay all males in a village.
He finds an old man, much like his grandfather, his religious teachings says don't kill, his own values say don't kill.
A soviet soldier in the same scenario, has just his own values to prevent him killing the old man.  

I can see religion can be used as a lever to move people to war or petty vindictiveness.
It's hard to make comparisons because I'm not aware of many atheist civilisations.
I think the Soviets did show an atheist society could be as bad as a godly one.

Ethics lessons for young atheists seems a good idea.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Both Hitler and Stalin, to me, show the problems of treating theism, or lack thereof, as the only variable that matters, given that both of them were suspicious to the point of paranoia, both were power-mad, both were virulent racists...

In other words, oversimplification leads to error.

[coltcat]

Stalin was raised in eastern orthodox christian I believe.
but did Stalin ever declare himself any time? I dont think so.
even if he's theist , those stupid theistic arguments over decades claim hes evil becuz hes atheist has already set the most of world to accept that he is an atheist.
(even tho his atheism is mostly not the point.)

damn I wish Hitler can resurrect and defending his believes
"no no no! I'm a true believer , God tells me to do so. I'm just stay in closet because I dont want my generals to think I'm insane." ), IMO he is anti-religion , and do pointing out religions critical problem.
off course , he might used wrong method to get rid of it.

[KebertX]

Yes, Stalin was very anti-religion.

If it's any consolation, Hitler was a Christian.  :pop: