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→Soviet Bloc: rv - removal of references unnecessary; Berman wrote two separate pieces of literature published under two different publishers; it is better to source contentious claims with multiple references
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#REDIRECT [[League of Militant Atheists]]
{{atheism2}}
'''''Militant atheism''''' is a term applied to [[atheism]] which is [[militantly]] hostile towards [[religion]].<ref name=Baggini>
{{cite book|author=[[Julian Baggini]]|title=Atheism |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=DUal7eYmEnEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Julian+Baggini+Militant+Atheism&hl=en&ei=MNP7TdWdJYbq0gHT0bSTAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Militant%20Atheism&f=false|quote=Militant Atheism: Atheism which is actively hostile to religion I would call militant. To be hostile in this sense requires more than just strong disagreement with religion—it requires something verging on hatred and is characterized by a desire to wipe out all forms of religious beliefs. Militant atheists tend to make one or both of two claims that moderate atheists do not. The first is that religion is demonstrably false or nonsense, and the second is that is is usually or always harmful.|publisher=[[Sterling Publishing]]|year=2009|accessdate=2011-06-28}}
</ref><ref name=Rahner>
{{cite book|author=[[Karl Rahner]]|title=Encyclopædia of Theology: A Concise Sacramentum Mundi|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=WtnR-6_PlJAC&pg=PA47&lpg=PA47&dq=encyclopedia+militant+atheism&source=bl&ots=nFaQ6oOndB&sig=50Ei0fNExEUT8VWQZAOKgUgmo2A&hl=en&ei=EpwYToCWEOn20gHotYiXBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCAQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q&f=false|quote=<big>'''ATHEISM'''</big> '''A. IN PHILOSOPHY''' I. ''Concept and incidence''. Philosophically speaking, atheism means denial of the existence of God or of any (and not merely of a rational) possibility of knowing God (theoretical atheism). In those who hold this theoretical atheism, it may be tolerant (and even deeply concerned), if it has no missionary aims; it is "militant" when it regards itself as a doctrine to be propagated for the happiness of mankind and combats every religion as a harmful aberration.|publisher=[[Continuum International Publishing Group]]|date=1975|accessdate=2011-06-28}}
</ref><ref name="Zuckerman">
{{cite book|author=Phil Zuckerman|title=Atheism and Secularity: Issues, Concepts, and Definitions|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Z1hbaAHsAlUC&pg=RA1-PA214&dq=militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=ixjLTe30I4uitgeWg8nmBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism&f=false|quote=In contrast, militant atheism, as advocated by Lenin and the Russian Bolsheviks, treats religion as the dangerous opium and narcotic of the people, a wrong political ideology serving the interests of antirevolutionary forces; thus force may be necessary to control or eliminate religion.|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|year=2009|accessdate=10 March 2011}}
</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Between Secularist Ideology and Desecularizing Reality: The Birth and Growth of Religious Research in Communist China|journal=Sociology of Religion|date=2004|first=Fenggang|last=Yang|coauthors=|volume=65|issue=2|pages=101-119|id= |url=http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/content/65/2/101.full.pdf|quote=Scientific atheism is the theoretical basis for tolerating religion while carrying out atheist propaganda, whereas militant atheism leads to antireligious measures. In practice, almost as soon as it took power in 1949, the CCP followed the hard line of militant atheism. Within a decade, all religions were brought under the iron control of the Party: Folk religious practices considered feudalist superstitions were vigorously suppressed; cultic or heterodox sects regarded as reactionary organizations were resolutely banned; foreign missionaries, considered part of Western imperialism, were expelled; and major world religions, including Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism, were coerced into "patriotic" national associations under close supervision of the Party. Religious believers who dared to challenge these policies were mercilessly banished to labor camps, jails, or execution grounds.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=The Red, Black, and Gray Markets of Religion in China|journal=The Sociological Quarterly|date=2006|first=Fenggang|last=Yang|coauthors=|volume=47|issue=1|pages=93–122|id= |url=http://www.purdue.edu/crcs/itemPublications/articles/Yang3Markets.pdf|quote= In contrast, militant atheism, as advocated by Lenin and the Russian Bolsheviks, treats religion as a dangerous narcotic and a troubling political ideology that serves the interests of antirevolutionary forces. As such, it should be suppressed or eliminated by the revolutionary force. On the basis of scientific atheism, religious toleration was inscribed in CCP policy since its early days. By reason of militant atheism, however, atheist propaganda became ferocious, and the power of “proletarian dictatorship” was invoked to eradicate the reactionary ideology (Dai 2001)}}</ref> British philosopher [[Julian Baggini]] describes an atheistic active hostility to religion as militant and says hostility "requires more than just strong disagreement with religion — it requires something verging on hatred and is characterized by a desire to wipe out all forms of religious belief."<ref name=Baggini/> Militant atheists, Baggini continues, "tend to make one or both of two claims that moderate atheists do not.<ref name=Baggini/> The first is that religion is demonstrably false or nonsense, and the second is that it is usually or always harmful."<ref name=Baggini/> Militant atheism, according to [[Karl Rahner]], differs from the philosophy of theoretical atheism, which he states, may be tolerant and deeply concerned.<ref name=Rahner>{{cite book|author=[[Karl Rahner]]|title=Encyclopædia of Theology: A Concise Sacramentum Mundi|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=WtnR-6_PlJAC&pg=PA47&lpg=PA47&dq=encyclopedia+militant+atheism&source=bl&ots=nFaQ6oOndB&sig=50Ei0fNExEUT8VWQZAOKgUgmo2A&hl=en&ei=EpwYToCWEOn20gHotYiXBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCAQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q&f=false|quote=<big>'''ATHEISM'''</big> '''A. IN PHILOSOPHY''' I. ''Concept and incidence''. Philosophically speaking, atheism means denial of the existence of God or of any (and not merely of a rational) possibility of knowing God (theoretical atheism). In those who hold this theoretical atheism, it may be tolerant (and even deeply concerned), if it has no missionary aims; it is "militant" when it regards itself as a doctrine to be propagated for the happiness of makind and combats every religion as a harmful aberration.|publisher=[[Continuum International Publishing Group]]|date=28 December 2004|accessdate=2011-06-28}}
</ref>


{{Redirect category shell|
Militant atheism was an integral part of the [[Dialectical materialism|materialism]] of [[Marxist–Leninist atheism|Marxism-Leninism]],<ref name="Integral">{{cite book|author=Harold Joseph Berman|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=j1208xA7F_0C&pg=PA394&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=fWXZTci_GMPY0QGfmun7Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFAQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20soviet%20union&f=false|title=Faith and Order: The Reconciliati oyn of Law and Religion|year=1993|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|quote=One fundamental element of that system was its propogation of a doctrine called Marxism-Leninism, and one fundamental element of that doctrine was militant atheism. Until only a little over three years ago, militant atheism was the official religion, one might say, of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party was the established church in what might be called an ''<u>a</u>theocratic state''.|accessdate=2011-07-09}}</ref><ref name="Fundamental">{{cite book|author=J. D. Van der Vyver, John Witte|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=XSnpr1ndq5kC&pg=PA289&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=QGbZTcGoA4ru0gHJ7fj8Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEMQ6AEwBTgU#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20soviet%20union&f=false|title=Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Legal Perspectives|publisher=[[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]]|year=1996|quote=For seventy years, from the Bolshevik Revolution to the closing years of the Gorbachev regime, militant atheism was the official religion, one might say, of the Soviet Union, and the Communist Party was, in effect, the established church. It was an avowed task of the Soviet state, led by the Communist Party, to root out from the minds and hearts of the Soviet state, all belief systems other than Marxism-Leninism.|accessdate=2011-07-09}}</ref> and significant in the [[French Revolution]],<ref name="Cloots">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=24Xk90Bsp4gC&pg=PT55&dq=french+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=Tuv6TZaKB8O1tge4lcG8Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=snippet&q=militant%20atheist&f=false|author=[[Alister E. McGrath]]|title =The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World|publisher=[[Random House]]|quote=So was the French Revolution fundamentally atheist? There is no doubt that such a view is to be found in much Christian and atheist literature on the movement. Cloots was at the forefront of the dechristianization movement that gathered around the militant atheist Jacques Hébert. He "debaptised" himself, setting aside his original name of Jean-Baptiste du Val-de-Grâce. For Cloots, religion was simply not to be tolerated. |accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> [[State atheism|atheist states]] such as the [[Soviet Union]],<ref name="Liquidation">{{cite book|author=Gerhard Simon|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=sTLc8H3b4vUC&pg=PA64&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=cZ_1TY64Eo26sAOa57C-Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CE0Q6AEwBzgK#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20soviet%20union&f=false|title=Church, State, and Opposition in the U.S.S.R.|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|quote=On the other hand the Communist Party has never made any secret of the fact, either before or after 1917, that it regards 'militant atheism' as an integral part of its ideology and will regard 'religion as by no means a private matter'. It therefore uses 'the means of ideological influence to educate people in the spirit of scientific materialism and to overcome religious prejudices..' Thus it is the goal of the C.P.S.U. and thereby also of the Soviet state, for which it is after all the 'guiding cell', gradually to liquidate the religious communities.|year=1974|accessdate=2011-07-09}}</ref><ref name="Islam">{{cite book|author=Simon Richmond|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=jcNZUzdd-ukC&pg=PA79&dq=liquidation+of+religion+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=xKz1Td2nLYr4swPXvYy8Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFQQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=liquidation%20of%20religion%20militant%20atheism&f=false|title=Russia & Belarus|publisher=[[BBC Worldwide]]|quote=Soviet 'militant atheism' led to the closure and destruction of nearly all the mosques and madrasahs (Muslim religious schools) in Russia, although some remained in the Central Asian states. Under Stalin there were mass deportations and liquidation of the Muslim elite.|year=2006|accessdate=2011-07-09}}</ref> and [[Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution]].<ref name="Revolt">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=mofX6zdChgcC&pg=PA132&dq=china+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=I_z2TZmePMGW0gGr_5CHCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CFgQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=china%20militant%20atheism&f=false|title =The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics)|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|quote=Seeking a complete annihilation of religion, places of worship were shut down; temples, churches, and mosques were destroyed; artifacts were smashed; sacred texts were burnt; and it was a criminal offence even to possess a religious artifact or sacred text. Atheism had long been the official doctrine of the Chinese Communist Party, but this new form of militant atheism made every effort to eradicate religion completely.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}
{{R with history}}
</ref>
According to Baggini, the "too-zealous" militant atheism found in the Soviet Union was characterized by thinking the best way to counter religion was "by [[oppression]] and making atheism the official [[state religion|state credo]]."<ref name=Baggini131>
{{cite book|author=[[Julian Baggini]]|title=Atheism |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=DUal7eYmEnEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Julian+Baggini+Militant+Atheism&hl=en&ei=MNP7TdWdJYbq0gHT0bSTAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Militant%20Atheism&f=false|quote=However, although this defense is certainly enough to justify a "not guilty" verdict in the court of history, the Soviet experience does point to two dangers of atheism. The first of these is a too-zealous militancy. It is one thing to disagree with religion and quite another to think that the best way to counter it is by oppression and making atheism the official state credo. What happened in Soviet Russia is one of the reasons why I personally dislike militant atheism.|page=131|publisher=[[Sterling Publishing]]|accessdate=2011-06-28}}
</ref>

Recently both the term ''militant atheist'' and the term ''atheist fundamentalist'',<ref name="Synonym">{{cite journal|last=Watson|first=Simon |url=http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap1502/1502watson.htm|journal=Anthropoetics: the Journal of Generative Anthropology|volume= 15|issue=2|title=Review Essay: Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion and Atheist Fundamentalism|publisher=[[UCLA]]|quote=Aware of the accusation that his hostility to religion marks him out as "a fundamentalist atheist," Dawkins defends himself by delineating an overly simplified and shallow definition of "fundamentalism."|date=Spring 2010|accessdate=19 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="Atheist Fundamentalism">{{cite book|last=Rodrigues|first=Luís |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=OsGuZjYzXdAC&pg=PA347&dq=militant+atheism+atheist+fundamentalism&hl=en&ei=OQzLTa65O9Oftwe9vaH_Bw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=when%20we%20talk%20about%20militant&f=false|title=Open Questions: Diverse Thinkers Discuss God, Religion, and Faith|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|quote=When we talk about militant atheists or fundamentalist atheists, I have a problem with those terms because... a militant or fundamentalist atheist simply says. "You can have your beliefs; just keep them private and don't force them on us."|accessdate=2011-06-27}}
</ref><ref name="Four Horsemen and Atheist Fundamentalism">
{{cite book|author=Amarnath Amarasingam|title=Religion and the New Atheism: A Critical Appraisal|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Ri65bB04dlwC&pg=PR13&dq=atheist+fundamentalism+dawkins+amarnath&hl=en&ei=YhvLTan5GMy4tgeUrJjkBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false|quote=It is no exaggeration to describe the movement popularized by the likes of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennet, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens as a new and particularly zealous form of fundamentalism— an atheist fundamentalism.|publisher=[[Brill Academic Publishers]]|accessdate=10 March 2011}}
</ref><ref name="New Atheism">{{cite web|url=http://biologos.org/blog/ian-hutchinson-on-the-new-atheists|title =Ian Hutchinson on the New Atheists|publisher=[[BioLogos Foundation]]|quote=Ian Hutchinson tells us in this video discussion that New Atheism -- a term used to describe recent intellectual attacks against religion -- is actually a misnomer. It is better, he says, to call the movement “Militant Atheism”. In fact, the arguments made by New Atheists are not new at all, but rather extensions of intellectual threads which have existed since the late 19th century. The only unique quality of this movement is the degree of criticism and edge with which its members write and speak about religion. According to Hutchinson, the books written by New Atheists in the past decade simply restate many of the same arguments which have emanated from atheist thinkers for decades. The militant edge of these arguments is what makes “New” Atheism unique and elevates it to a level of popularity within a subset of the population. It is because these Militant Atheists show no respect at all for religion, says Hutchinson, that they are receiving status as a new movement.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}
</ref>
have been used, frequently pejoratively, to describe leaders of the [[New Atheism]] movement, who share a belief that religion "should not simply be [[toleration|tolerated]] but should be countered, criticized and exposed by rational argument wherever its influence arises."<ref name="CNN">
{{cite web|author=Simon Hooper|title=The rise of the 'New Atheists'|url=http://articles.cnn.com/2006-11-08/world/atheism.feature_1_new-atheists-new-atheism-religion?_s=PM:WORLD|publisher=[[Cable News Network (CNN)]]|quote=What the New Atheists share is a belief that religion should not simply be tolerated but should be countered, criticized and exposed by rational argument wherever its influence arises.|accessdate=10 March 2011}}
</ref><ref name="Tolerated">
{{cite web|author=Amarnath Amarasingam|title=Religion and the New Atheism (Studies in Critical Social Sciences: Studies in Critical Research on Religion 1)|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Ri65bB04dlwC&pg=PA8&dq=new+atheism+tolerance&hl=en&ei=_t4dTuGyEYvfgQeYkID3CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=new%20atheism%20tolerance&f=false|publisher=[[Brill Academic Publishers]]|quote=For the new atheists, tolerance of intolerance (often presented in the guise of relativism of multiculturalism) is one of the greatest dangers in contemporary society.|accessdate=10 March 2011}}
</ref><ref name="Virus">
{{cite web|author=[[Stephen Prothero]]|title=God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World--and Why Their Differences Matter|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=U8lom4oVPJEC&pg=PA321&dq=new+atheism+tolerance&hl=en&ei=4eAdTpfDFMbv0gHQ24n5Bw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC0Q6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=new%20atheism%20tolerance&f=false|publisher=[[HarperOne]]|quote=For these New Atheists and their acolytes, the problem is not religious fanaticism. The problem is religion itlself. So-called moderates only spread the "mind viruses" of religion by making them appear to be less authoritarian, misogynistic, and irrational than they actually are.|accessdate=10 March 2011}}
</ref>

The term ''militant atheist'' has been used going back to at least 1894, and it has been applied to people, namely [[Political philosophy|political thinkers]].<ref name="Hobbes">
{{cite web|author=[[George William Foote]]|title=Flowers of Freethought|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2BEZAAAAYAAJ&q=%22militant+atheism%22&dq=%22militant+atheism%22&lr=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=1800&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=1900&as_brr=0#v=snippet&q=%22militant%20atheism%22&f=false|publisher=[[Nabu Press]]|quote=At the same time, however, we admit that militant Atheism is still, as of old, an offence to the superfine sceptics who desire to stand well with the great firm of Bumble and Grundy, as well as to the vast army of priests and preachers who have a professional interest in keeping heresy "dark," and to the truling and priviledged classes, who feel that militant Atheism is a great disturber of the peace which is founded on popular superstition and injustice.|date=1894|accessdate=2011-07-09}}
</ref> The appellation has also been criticized by Dave Niose, who feels that the term is used indiscriminately for "an atheist who had the nerve to openly question religious authority or vocally express his or her views about the [[existence of God]]."<ref name="Niose">{{cite web|author=Dave Niose|title=The Myth of Militant Atheism|url=http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201102/the-myth-militant-atheism|publisher=[[Psychology Today]]|quote=When the media and others refer to a "militant atheist," the object of that slander is usually an atheist who had the nerve to openly question [[clergy|religious authority]] or vocally express his or her views about the existence of God.|date=1894|accessdate=2011-07-09}}</ref>

==Soviet Bloc==
[[File:Svb-1.jpeg|thumb|left|The cover of a membership card of the League of Militant Atheists of the USSR]]
{{further|[[Persecution of Christians in Warsaw Pact countries]]|[[Islam in the Soviet Union]]|[[Propaganda in the Soviet Union]]|[[Censorship in the Soviet Union]]|[[Suppressed research in the Soviet Union]]}}
Militant atheism was effectively the [[state atheism|state religion]] of the [[Soviet Union]], with the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] functioning as an [[established church]].<ref name="Integral">{{cite book|author=Harold Joseph Berman|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=j1208xA7F_0C&pg=PA394&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=fWXZTci_GMPY0QGfmun7Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFAQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20soviet%20union&f=false|title=Faith and Order: The Reconciliation of Law and Religion|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|quote=One fundamental element of that system was its propogation of a doctrine called Marxism-Leninism, and one fundamental element of that doctrine was militant atheism. Until only a little over three years ago, militant atheism was the official religion, one might say, of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party was the established church in what might be called an ''<u>a</u>theocratic state''.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="Fundamental">{{cite book|author=J. D. Van der Vyver, John Witte|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=XSnpr1ndq5kC&pg=PA289&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=QGbZTcGoA4ru0gHJ7fj8Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEMQ6AEwBTgU#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20soviet%20union&f=false|title=Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Legal Perspectives|publisher=[[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]]|quote=For seventy years, from the Bolshevik Revolution to the closing years of the Gorbachev regime, militant atheism was the official religion, one might say, of the Soviet Union, and the Communist Party was, in effect, the established church. It was an avowed task of the Soviet state, led by the Communist Party, to root out from the minds and hearts of the Soviet people all belief systems other than Marxism-Leninism. This was surely the most massive and the most powerful assault on traditional religious faith that was ever launched in the history of mankind.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="Programme">{{cite book|author= R. J. Overy|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=YWUxDKN80BgC&pg=PA271&dq=liquidation+of+religion+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=xKz1Td2nLYr4swPXvYy8Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia|publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]]|quote=The communist regime treated the Church as a political institution rather than as a set of beliefs. On 28 January 1918 the Russian Orthodox Church was formally separated from the state; religious belief was permitted as long as it did not threaten public order or trespass on political soil. Religious property was liquidated, and a twenty-year programme of church closures begun. Religion was banned from schools. The state and the pary were officially atheist.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="Symposium">{{cite web|author=Harold J. Berman|url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/emint12&div=12&id=&page=|title=Freedom of Religion in Russia: An Amicus Brief for the Defendant|publisher=[[HeinOnline]]|quote=from the Bolshevik Revolution to the closing years of the Gorbachev regime, militant atheism was the official religion, one might say, of the Soviet Union, and the Communist Party was, in effect, the established church.|date=1998}}</ref> The militant atheism of the [[Bolsheviks]] owed its origins not just to the "standard Marxist feeling that religion was the opium of the masses", but also to the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church had "always been a pillar of czarism."<ref name="Brinton">{{cite book|author=Crane Brinton|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=F1dsKbVBkVkC&q=militant+atheism+A+History+of+Civilization:+1648+to+the+present&dq=militant+atheism+A+History+of+Civilization:+1648+to+the+present&hl=en&ei=yYIPToypPKuu0AHOg8C9Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA|title=A History of Civilization: 1648 to the present|publisher=[[Prentice Hall]]|quote=Militant atheism had been the policy of the early Bolsheviks. Behind their attitude lay more than the standard Marxist feeling that religion was the opium of the masses; in Russia the Orthodox church had always been a pillar of czarism.|accessdate=19 October 2009}}</ref> The goal of the Soviet Union was the liquidation of religion and the means to achieve this goal included the destruction of churches, mosques, [[synagogues]], [[mandirs]], [[madrasahs]], religious monuments, as well the mass deportation to Siberia of believers of different religions.<ref name="Liquidation"/><ref name="Islam"/><ref name="Vote">{{cite book|author=Dimitry Pospielovsky|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=2cP0wc_E6yEC&pg=PA395&dq=liquidation+of+religion+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=xKz1Td2nLYr4swPXvYy8Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=liquidation%20of%20religion%20militant%20atheism&f=false|title=The Orthodox Church in the History of Russia|publisher=St Vladimir's Seminary Press|quote=It might be expected that as a Christian leader, he would at least declare that a Christian could not vote for a party that preached and practiced genocide, whether racial or class-based , nor for a party whose ideology included a militant atheism aiming at liquidation of religion.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="Korea">{{cite book|author=Melvin Ember; Carol R. Ember; Ian Skoggard|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=7QEjPVyd9YMC&pg=PA988&dq=encyclopedia+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=D6AYTrn3NbS30AH1zriXBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=militant&f=false|title=Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World. Volume I: Overviews and Topics; Volume II: Diaspora Communities (v. 1)|publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media]]|quote=The militant atheism of the Soviet period put an end to the traditional beliefs, religion, and rituals of Koreans.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="Yahudion">{{cite book|author=Ruth Ellen Gruber|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=2Ae-e3MUVjkC&pg=PA99&dq=militant+atheism+synagogue&hl=en&ei=NIYcTuOfFcuSgQe1xfnaCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=National Geographic Jewish Heritage Travel|publisher=[[National Geographic Society]]|quote=But the hundreds of thousands of Jews in the Soviet sector were subject to the regime's ruthless campaign of militant atheism. Synagogues were closed, demolished, or converted for secular use, and religious life was crushed.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="World">{{cite book|author=Albert Lee|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=ULptAAAAMAAJ&q=militant+atheism+jews&dq=militant+atheism+jews&hl=en&ei=K4UcTrbaLMjZgAfdydD1CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAjgo|title=Henry Ford and the Jews|publisher=Stein and Day|quote=First, Coughlin: The atheist Jew, Gubermann, under the name of Jaroslawski and then the leader of the militant atheists in Soviet Union, also declared: "It is our duty to desuoy every religious world concept.|date=1980}}</ref><ref name="Mandir">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=wm3w1oGCaEoC&pg=PA1387&dq=militant+atheism+synagogue&hl=en&ei=NIYcTuOfFcuSgQe1xfnaCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=World and Its Peoples|publisher=[[Marshall Cavendish Corporation]]|quote=A campaign of militant atheism began. Many churches — as well as synagogues, mosques, and Buddhist temples — were closed or destroyed. For example, some eight thousad Russian Orthodox churches were closed in 1937 alone.|date=1980}}</ref> Under the Soviet doctrine of [[Soviet anti-religious legislation|separation of church and state]], detailed in the [[Constitution of the Soviet Union]], churches in the Soviet Union were forbidden to [[Almsgiving#Christianity|give to the poor]] or carry on [[religious education|educational activities]].<ref name="Separation">{{cite book|author=Harold Joseph Berman|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=j1208xA7F_0C&pg=PA394&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=fWXZTci_GMPY0QGfmun7Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFAQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20soviet%20union&f=false|title=Faith and Order: The Reconciliation of Law and Religion|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|quote=Under the doctrine of spearation of church and state, churches in the Soviet Union were forbidden to engage in any activities that were within the sphere of responsibilities of the state. The meant, for example, that churches could not give to the poor or carry on educational activities. They could not publish literature since all publishing was done by state agencies, although after World War II the Russian Orthodox Church was given the right to publish church calendars, a very limited number of Bibles, and a monthly journal in a limited number of copies. Churches were forbidden to hold any special meetings for children, youth or women, or any general meetings for religious study or recreation, or to open libraries or keep any books other than those necessary for the performance of worship services. Severe criminal penalties were imposed for violation of these rules.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref> They could [[Censorship by religion|not publish literature]] since all publishing was done by state agencies, although after World War II the Russian Orthodox Church was given the right to publish [[Liturgical year|church calendars]], a very limited number of [[Bibles]], and a monthly journal in a limited number of copies.<ref name="Separation"/> Churches were forbidden to hold any [[Youth ministry (Evangelical)|special meetings]] for children, youth or women, or any general [[Sunday School|meetings for religious study]] or recreation, or to open libraries or keep any books other than those necessary for the performance of [[church service|worship services]].<ref name="Separation"/><ref name="Measures">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=VSmdHtacha8C&pg=PA232&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=TZ_1TdD2PIH4swOTkYC9Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20&f=false|title=Christian Religion in the Soviet Union: A Sociological Study|author=Christel Lane|publisher=[[State University of New York Press]]|quote=Militant atheist measures, both in premeditated and in unforeseen ways, have also caused far-reaching changes in the organisational structure of collectivities, in the ways they perform their religious functions and in which believers satisfy their religious requirements. In the field of organisation, most measures have had the effect of weakening or destroying central organisation and strengthening local independence and spontaneity.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="Wall">{{cite book|author= J. D. Van der Vyver, John Witte|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=XSnpr1ndq5kC&pg=PA289&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=QGbZTcGoA4ru0gHJ7fj8Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEMQ6AEwBTgU#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20soviet%20union&f=false|title=Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Legal Perspectives|publisher=[[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]]|quote=Churches, mosques, and synagogues were deprived of almost all activities except the conduct or worship services. Moreover, schools were not merely to avoid the teaching of religion; they were actively to promote the teaching of atheism. These doctringes were spelled out in a 1929 law that remained the basic legistlation on the subject until the Gorbachev reforms of the late 1980s. There was freedom of religious worship, but churches were forbidden to give any material aid to their memebers or charity of any kind, or to hold any special meetings for children, youth, or women, or general meetings for religious study, recreation, or any similar purpose or to open libraries or to keep any books other thanose necessary for the performance of worhsip services. The formula of the 1929 law was repeated in the 1936 Constitution and again in the 1977 Constitution: freedom of religious worship and freedom of atheist propaganda-meaning (1) no freedom of religious teaching outside of the worship service itself, plus (2) a vigorous campaign in the schools, in the press, and in special meetings organized by atheist agitators, to convice people of the folly of religious beliefs. |date=19 October 2009}}</ref> Furthermore, under militant atheist policies, Church property was expropriated.<ref name="Programme"/><ref name="Property">{{cite book|author=Richard Sakwa|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=EoQXhV8XTFUC&pg=PA74&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=QGbZTcGoA4ru0gHJ7fj8Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAjgU#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20soviet%20union&f=false|title=The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, 1917-1991|publisher=[[Psychology Press]]|quote=Marx's view on religion as the 'opiate of the people' under the Bolsheviks took the form a militant atheism that sought to destroy the social sources of the power of the Church, and to extirpate religious belief as a social phenomenon. Uner the slogan of separating Church and state, the Bolsheviks in effect expropriated church property and dramatically limited the Church's ability to conduct a normal religious life.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref> Moreover, not only was religion banned from the school and university system, but pupils were to be indoctrinated with atheism and [[antireligious]] teachings.<ref name="School">{{cite book|author= J. D. Van der Vyver, John Witte|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=XSnpr1ndq5kC&pg=PA289&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=QGbZTcGoA4ru0gHJ7fj8Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEMQ6AEwBTgU#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20soviet%20union&f=false|title=Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Legal Perspectives|publisher=[[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]]|quote=Moreover, schools were not merely to avoid the teaching of religion; they were actively to promote the teaching of atheism.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="Education">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=8jkFD4ZXjd8C&pg=PA58&dq=science+God+militant+atheist&hl=en&ei=E-X1TfXbPIy-tgeRxb2HBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=science%20God%20militant%20atheist&f=false|title =The Plot to Kill God: findings from the Soviet experiment in Secularization |publisher=[[University of California Press]]|author=Paul Froese|quote=Militant atheists also believed that science disproved religion because God remained unseen, his miracles were never subject to empirical verification, and certain religious stories were inconceivable. As such, the Soviet school system consistently promoted "atheistic science" to combat the effects of religion. The curriculum of scientific atheism resembled the curriculum of scientific atheism resembled the curriculum for much of the Soviet educational system, as it was based more on memorization than critical analysis. For homework, schoolchildren were sometimes asked to convert a member of their family to atheism by reciting arguments that were intended to disprove religious beliefs. And schoolchildren often memorized antireligious rhymes, songs, and catechisms. Antireligious ideas infiltrated the most basic in unrelated topics: "Physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy, mathematics, history, geography and literature all serve as jumping-off points to instruct pupils on the evils or falsity of religion." Although many school subjects appear unrelated to religion, Soviets believed that any intellectual activity was intrinsically opposed to religion. The Soviet educational system officially stated that "that bringing up of children in the atheist spirit" was one of its primary missions. University students were also required to actively propogate atheism and were told, "Those who refuse to make such practical application of their study [of scientific atheism] will lose their scholarships and must leave the university. Special pressure was placed on academics and scientists to join the atheist educational organization Znanie, and, b the late 1970s, for example, over 80 percent of all professors and doctors of science in Luthuania became members. The course syllabi from the atheist universities of the Soviet Union indicate how the topic of atheism was presented as a historically logical outcome of scientific development.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref><ref name="University">{{cite book|author= Harold Joseph Berman|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=j1208xA7F_0C&pg=PA394&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=fWXZTci_GMPY0QGfmun7Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFAQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20soviet%20union&f=false|title=Faith and Order: The Reconciliation of Law and Religion|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|quote=The formula of the 1936 and 1977 Soviet Constitutions was: freedom of religious worship and freedom of atheist propoganda-meaning, first no freedom of religious teaching other than the worship service itself, and second, a vigorous campaign in the schools and universities, in the press, and in special meetings organized by atheist so-called "agitators," to convince people of the folly of religious beliefs.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref> For example, schoolchildren were asked to convert family members to [[atheism]] and memorize antireligious rhymes, songs, and catechisms, while university students who declined to propagate atheism lost their scholarships and were [[Expulsion (academia)|expelled]] from universities.<ref name="Education"/> Severe [[Gulag|criminal penalties]] were imposed for violation of these rules.<ref name="Separation">{{cite book|author=Harold Joseph Berman|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=j1208xA7F_0C&pg=PA394&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=fWXZTci_GMPY0QGfmun7Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFAQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20soviet%20union&f=false|title=Faith and Order: The Reconciliation of Law and Religion|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|quote=Under the doctrine of separation of church and state, churches in the Soviet Union were forbidden to engage in any activities that were within the sphere of responsibilities of the state. The meant, for example, that churches could not give to the poor or carry on educational activities. They could not publish literature since all publishing was done by state agencies, although after World War II the Russian Orthodox Church was given the right to publish church calendars, a very limited number of Bibles, and a monthly journal in a limited number of copies. Churches were forbidden to hold any special meetings for children, youth or women, or any general meetings for religious study or recreation, or to open libraries or keep any books other than those necessary for the performance of worship services. Severe criminal penalties were imposed for violation of these rules.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="Penalties">{{cite book|author= J. D. Van der Vyver, John Witte|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=XSnpr1ndq5kC&pg=PA289&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=QGbZTcGoA4ru0gHJ7fj8Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEMQ6AEwBTgU#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20soviet%20union&f=false|title=Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Legal Perspectives|publisher=[[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]]|quote=In 1960 Criminal Code of the Russian Republic imposed a fine for violating lasw of separation from the state and of the school from the church, and, for repeated violators, deprivation of freedom up to three years (Article 142). Such violations included organizing religious assemblies and processions, organizing religious instruction for minors, and preparing written materials calling for such activities. Other types of religious activities were subject to more severe sanctions: thus leaders and active participants in religious groups that caused damage to the health of citizens or violted personal rights, or that tried to persaude citizens not to participate in social activities or to perform duties of citizens, or that drew minors into such group, were punishable by deprivation of freedom up to give years (Article 277).|date=19 October 2009}}</ref> By the 1960s, with the [[USSR anti-religious campaign (1958–1964)|fourth Soviet anti-religious campaign]] underway, half of the amount of [[Russian Orthodox]] churches were closed, along with five out of the eight [[seminaries]].<ref name="Closure">{{cite book|author= J. D. Van der Vyver, John Witte|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=XSnpr1ndq5kC&pg=PA289&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=QGbZTcGoA4ru0gHJ7fj8Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEMQ6AEwBTgU#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20soviet%20union&f=false|title=Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Legal Perspectives|publisher=[[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]]|quote=These articles of the Criminal Code were enacted as part of the severe anti-religious campaign launched under Khrushchev in the early 1960s, when an estimated 10,000 Russian Orthodox churches-half the total number-were closed, together with five of the eight insitutions for training priests, and the independence of the priesthood were curtailed both nationally and locally.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref> In addition, several other [[Christian denominations]] were brought to extinction, including the [[Baptist Church]], [[Methodist Church]], [[Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of Russia|Evangelical Christian Church]], and the [[Evangelical Lutheran Church]].<ref name="Denominations">{{cite book|author=Gerhard Simon|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=sTLc8H3b4vUC&pg=PA64&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=cZ_1TY64Eo26sAOa57C-Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CE0Q6AEwBzgK#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20soviet%20union&f=false|title=Church, State, and Opposition in the U.S.S.R.|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|quote=The extensive application of the laws on religion, massive atheist propoganda and Stalinist terror in the 1930s had led by the eve of the Second World War to the complete destruction of several denominations include the Baptists, the Evangelical Christians and the Evangelical-Lutheran Church. Even the Russian Orthodox Church seemed in 1939 to be on the eve of disintegration. In the whole of the Soviet Union there were only a few hundred clergy and open churches left, only seven bishops were still in office and all diocesan administrations, except those in Moscow and Leningrad, had had to cease their activity. |date=19 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="Methodism">{{cite web|author=Rev. Thomas Hoffmann; William Alex Pridemore|url=http://www.demokratizatsiya.org/bin/pdf/DEM%2012-3%20Pridemore%20.pdf|title=Esau’s Birthright and Jacob’s Pottage: A Brief Look at Orthodox-Methodist Ecumenism in Twentieth-Century Russia|publisher=[[Demokratizatsiya (journal)|Demokratizatsiya]]|quote=One of these was the resurgence of non-Orthodox Christian confessions, including the Methodist Church-a denomination completely eradicated in Russia during the Soviet era.|accessdate=19 October 2009}}</ref> Before the [[Russian Revolution]], there were more than fifty thousand Russian Orthodox clergymen, by 1939, there were no more than three to four hundred clerical positions left.<ref name="Revolution">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=8jkFD4ZXjd8C&pg=PA58&dq=science+God+militant+atheist&hl=en&ei=E-X1TfXbPIy-tgeRxb2HBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=science%20God%20militant%20atheist&f=false|title =The Plot to Kill God: findings from the Soviet experiment in Secularization |publisher=[[University of California Press]]|author=Paul Froese|quote=There were more than fifty thousand Orthodox priests before the Russian Revolution, and by mid-1939, there were no more than three to four hundred clergy.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> In the year 1922 alone, under the militant atheistic system, 2691 [[secular priests]], 1962 [[Christian monasticism|monks]] and 3447 nuns were [[Christian martyrs|martyred]] for their faith.<ref name="Martyrs">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=gGqPftVkwgUC&pg=PA225&dq=militant+atheist+martyrs&hl=en&ei=t6X3TdWpH6fw0gGO7uSLCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEEQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q&f=false|title =Witness to the World|publisher=[[St Vladimir's Seminary Press]]|author=John Meyendorff|quote=After having been the state religion for centuries both in Russian and in almost all the countries of Europe, Christianity suddenly was confronted with a militant atheistic system claiming to regulate not only the material, but also the spiritual life of man. The number of those who died for the faith is innumerable: in the year 1922 alone, 2691 secular priests, 1962 monks and 3447 nuns (N. Struve, ''Christians in Russia'', Harvill Press, London, 1967, p. 38).|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref><ref name="Shaheedon">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=f7D-5Q-Q19MC&printsec=frontcover&dq=kallistos+Orthodox+Church+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=GjIJTumqNMLSgQft2_CeAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=soviet&f=false|title =The Orthodox Church|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|author=[[Timothy Ware]]|quote=Chapter 8 The Twentieth Century, II: Orthodoxy and the Militant Atheists: The Ottoman Turks, while non-Christians, were still worshippers of the one God and, as we have seen, allowed the Church a large measure of toleration. But Soviet Communism was committed by its fundamental principles to an aggressive and militant atheism. Not only were churches closed on a massive scale in the 1920s and 1930s, but huge numbers of bishops and clergy, monks, nuns and laity were sent to prison and to concentration camps. How many were executed or died from ill-treatment we simply cannot calculate. Nikita Struve provides a list of martyr-bishops running to 130 names, and even this he terms 'provisional and incomplete'. The sum total of priest-martyrs must extend into tens of thousands.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> Due to the militant atheistic campaigns against [[Judaism]],<ref name="Judaism">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=mY0hdxKfpusC&pg=PA266&dq=militant+atheism+jews&hl=en&ei=r3gcTsmzMabc0QHEvt3eBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwADge#v=onepage&q=militant&f=false|title =Terms of Survival: the Jewish World since 1945 |publisher=[[Psychology Press]]|author=[[Robert S. Wistrich]]|quote=Anti-Semitism, too, was relatively mild in the USSR during these interim post-Stalin years, despite the militant atheistic campaigns against the Jewish religion and the implication of Jews in economic crimes under Khruschev.
|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> the religion was inaccessible to its followers;<ref name="Jews">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=QM1hloeMQqgC&pg=PA30&dq=militant+atheism+jews&hl=en&ei=83ccTpzVC4Pd0QGzwpnZBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20jews&f=false|title =American Jewish Year, Book 1998|publisher=Amer Jewish Committee|author=[[David Singer]]|quote=For most Soviet Jews, raised in an atmosphere of militant atheism, Judaism was inaccessible; and so the Soviet Jewish renaissance focused instead on national identity. Israel and its military victories, especially the Six Day War, emboldened thousands of young Jews to form the Soviet Union's only mass, nationwide, dissident movement.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> most Soviet Jews focused on a national identity, which fueled a mass dissident movement.<ref name="Jews">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=QM1hloeMQqgC&pg=PA30&dq=militant+atheism+jews&hl=en&ei=83ccTpzVC4Pd0QGzwpnZBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20jews&f=false|title =American Jewish Year, Book 1998|publisher=Amer Jewish Committee|author=[[David Singer]]|quote=For most Soviet Jews, raised in an atmosphere of militant atheism, Judaism was inaccessible; and so the Soviet Jewish renaissance focused instead on national identity. Israel and its military victories, especially the Six Day War, emboldened thousands of young Jews to form the Soviet Union's only mass, nationwide, dissident movement.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> Marxist-Leninist militant atheism resulted in the administrative elimination of the [[clergy]], the housing of atheist museums where churches had once stood, the sending of many religious people to prisons and concentration camps, a continuous stream of propaganda, and the imposing of atheism through education (and forced [[brainwashing|re-education]] through torture at various prisons).<ref name="Museums">{{cite book|author=De James Thrower|url=http://www.google.com/books?id=BGJtDwJ7aPwC&pg=PA135&dq=%22atheist+museums+housed+where+churches+had+once+stood%22+%22This,+of+course,+was+in+line+with+Lenin%27s+policy+of+militant+atheism,+as+was+the+emphasis+on+education+as+means+of+eliminating+religious+beliefs%22+%22hate-propaganda+designed+to+terrorise+the+faithful%22&lr=&hl=ro&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22atheist%20museums%20housed%20where%20churches%20had%20once%20stood%22%20%22This%2C%20of%20course%2C%20was%20in%20line%20with%20Lenin%27s%20policy%20of%20militant%20atheism%2C%20as%20was%20the%20emphasis%20on%20education%20as%20means%20of%20eliminating%20religious%20beliefs%22%20%22hate-propaganda%20designed%20to%20terrorise%20the%20faithful%22&f=false|title=Marxist-Leninist Scientific Atheism and the Study of Religion and Atheism in the USSR|publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]]|quote=In the pre-war period the emphasis was on 'practical atheism' -- the more so as Stalin, the sole arbiter in such matters had not made a single theoretical pronouncement on religion or the study of religion - and 'practical atheism' meant schools from the propogation of atheism, the administrative elimination of the clergy, atheist museums where churches had once stood, and a continuois stream of hate-propganda designed to terroise the faithful into submission.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref><ref>[http://www.google.com/books?id=BBTNdyAbfckC&pg=PA126&dq=%22the+party+adopted+a+policy+of+militant+atheism,+and+started+to+uproot+organized+religion+in+Russia%22+%22religious+education+was+outlawed,+being+replaced+with+atheistic+propaganda%22+%22museums+of+atheism%22&lr=&hl=ro&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22the%20party%20adopted%20a%20policy%20of%20militant%20atheism%2C%20and%20started%20to%20uproot%20organized%20religion%20in%20Russia%22%20%22religious%20education%20was%20outlawed%2C%20being%20replaced%20with%20atheistic%20propaganda%22%20%22museums%20of%20atheism%22&f=false A short history of Soviet socialism] ISBN 9781857283556</ref><ref>[http://www.uq.edu.au/~laacassi/OrthodoxChristianityandMilitantAtheism.html Orthodox Christianity and Militant Atheism in the Twentieth Century]</ref><ref name="Rights">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=e9OJSW5dkM8C&pg=PA171&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=cZ_1TY64Eo26sAOa57C-Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20soviet%20union&f=false|title =Toward a New Enlightenment: the philosophy of Paul Kurtz|author=Paul Kurtz, Vern L. Bullough, Tim Madigan|publisher=[[Transaction Books]]|quote=There have been fundamental and irreconciliable differences between humanists and atheists, particularly Marxist-Leninists. The defining characteristic of humanism is its committment to human freedom and democracy; the kind of atheism practiced in the Soviet Union has consistently violated basic human rights.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> Specifically, by 1941, 40,000 Christian [[Church (building)|churches]] and 25,000 Muslim [[mosques]] had been closed down and converted into schools, cinemas, clubs, warehouses and grain stores, or Museums of Scientific Atheism.<ref name="Conversion">{{cite book|author=Allan Todd, Sally Waller|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=yNpjjkTZiPAC&pg=PT53&dq=deaths+under+militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=Cqn3TcDjDsH50gHowviuCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CFYQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=deaths%20under%20militant%20atheism%20soviet%20union&f=false|title=Origins and Development of Authoritarian and Single Party States|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|quote=By the time of the Nazi invasion in 1941, nearly 40,000 Christian churches and 25,000 Muslims mosques had been closed down and converted into schools, cinemas, clubs, warehouses and grain stores, or Museums of Scientific Atheism.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="Archaeology">{{cite journal|author=Allan Todd, Sally Waller|url=http://presentpasts.info/index.php/pp/article/viewFile/pp.13/19|title=Crispin Paine|journal=Present Pasts|volume=1|quote=By the time of the Nazi invasion in 1941, nearly 40,000 Christian churches and 25,000 Muslims mosques had been closed down and converted into schools, cinemas, clubs, warehouses and grain stores, or Museums of Scientific Atheism.}}</ref>
[[File:Bezhnoznik u stanka 15-1929.jpeg|thumb|A [[Propaganda in the Soviet Union|Soviet propaganda poster]] disseminated in the ''[[Bezbozhnik]]'' (''Atheist'') magazine depicting [[Jesus]] being dumped from a wheelbarrow by an industrial worker as well as a smashed [[church bell]]; the text advocates [[Soviet calendar|Industrialisation Day]] as an alternative replacement to the [[Christian]] [[Feast of the Transfiguration|Transfiguration Day]].]]
Oscar J. Hammen, an American historian, classified [[Engels]] as a militant atheist,<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/187483/Friedrich-Engels Freidrich Engels] [[Encyclopedia Britannica]] 2008.</ref> although the Soviet professor, N. Lobkowicz, challenged the assertion that [[Marx]] was a militant atheist.<ref>Lobkowicz, N (1964). "Karl Marx's Attitude toward Religion", ''The Review of Politics'', Vol. 26 (3), July, pp.319–352. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1405231.pdf], see also [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hRdyY2f8UcUC&pg=PA155&lpg=PA155&dq=%22Karl+Marx%22+%22militant+atheist%22&source=bl&ots=4m6U7-mbFo&sig=muP0j1GKAwT4WDcq4eZmr5NEE60&hl=en&ei=YWWJSoj3MuKgjAfo-fyiCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7#v=onepage&q=%22Karl%20Marx%22%20%22militant%20atheist%22&f=false]</ref> The ascent of the [[Bolsheviks]] to power in 1917 "meant the beginning of a campaign of militant atheism."<ref>John F. Pollard ''Benedict XV: the unknown pope and the pursuit of peace'' p. 199.</ref> and in 1922 [[Lenin]], himself a militant atheist,<ref name="Lenin">{{cite book|author=Edward Craig|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=1wL-MriFm2YC&pg=PA564&dq=encyclopedia+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=D6AYTrn3NbS30AH1zriXBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheist&f=false|title=Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Volume 1|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|quote=Lenin, Vladimir Il'ich (1870-1924) Lenin, leader of the October 1917 Revolution in Russia, wrote mainly about politics and economics, but as a Marxist of his generation he assumed that ideas about society needed to rest on sound philosophical premises. He was a militant atheist.|accessdate=19 October 2009}}</ref> referred with approval to "militant atheist literature" and demanded that the journal ''Pod Znamenem Marksizma'' "must be a militant atheist organ", explaining that he meant militant 'in the sense of unflinchingly exposing and indicting all modern “graduated flunkeys of clericalism”, irrespective of whether they act as representatives of official science or as free lances calling themselves “democratic Left or ideologically socialist” publicists'.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/mar/12.htm On the Significance of Militant Materialism] [[Lenin]] 1922</ref> In 1923, the ''[[Bezbozhnik]]'' ("Atheist", or "Godless") magazine appeared,<ref>[http://cartoonia.net/z/zh_bezbozhnik.htm Журнал "БЕЗБОЖНИК", Москва, СССР] (''Bezbozhnik'' Magazine, Moscow, USSR). The page is in UTF-8 encoding. The caption to the front page picture of the No. 1 issue, by [[Dmitry Moor]], shown in the article, is "We've finished with the earthly kings – now it's time to take care of the heavenly ones!"</ref>
around which the "Union of the Friends of the ''Bezbozhnik''" was formed in 1924. The organization, renamed the [[League of Militant Atheists]] ({{lang-ru|Союз воинствующих безбожников}}, ''Soyuz voinstvuyushchikh bezbozhnikov'') in 1929, along with the [[Tatar Union of the Militant Godless]],<ref name="Tatar">{{cite book|author=Alexandre A. Bennigsen, S. Enders Wimbush|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=uKr2O2GBDsQC&pg=PA202&dq=Tatar+Union+of+the+Militant+Godless&hl=en&ei=e_j6TZywHMys0AGh2aCiAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Tatar%20Union%20of%20the%20Militant%20Godless&f=false|title=Muslim National Communism in the Soviet Union: A Revolutionary Strategy for the Colonial World|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|quote=In disgrace after Sultan Galiev's trial in 1928, he was, until his final purge in 1937, chairman of the Tatar Union of Militant Godless.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref> carried out anti-religious propaganda at the grassroots level.<ref name="League">{{cite book|author=Sabrina P. Ramet|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=AL_Jq-7VV0YC&pg=PA14&dq=league+of+militant+atheists&hl=en&ei=rBn6TaX3GaKp0AGYsfHdAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=league%20of%20militant%20atheists&f=false|title=Religious Policy in the Soviet Union|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|quote=Local public and voluntary organisations - the ''Komsomol'', the Young Pioneers, workers' Clubs and, of course, the League of Militant Atheists - were encouraged to undertake a whole range of anti-religious initiatives: promoting the observance of the five day working week, ensuring that priests did not visit believers in their homes, supervising the setting-up of cells of the Leauge of Militant Atheists in the army. Public lampoons and blasphemous parades, recalling the early 1920s, were resumed from 1928. One of the main activities of the League of Militant Atheists was the publication of massive quantities of anti-religious literature, cpmprising regular journals and newspapers as well as books and pamphlets. The number of printed pages rose from 12 million in 1927 to 800 million in 1930.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="Organisation">{{cite book|author=William G. Rosenberg|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=7JeUwFST2e0C&pg=PA218&dq=league+of+militant+atheists&hl=en&ei=rBn6TaX3GaKp0AGYsfHdAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=league%20of%20militant%20atheists&f=false|title=Bolshevik Visions: First Phase of the Cultural Revolution in Soviet Russia, Part 1 |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]]|quote=The publication in 1923 of Yaroslavsky's response to Khegund (see below), signalled the beginning of an organized ant-religious movement. Many in the party still urged caution; the "League of Militant Atheists, formally the a "private union" rather than a party body, was not permitted to function until 1925.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="Membership">{{cite book|author=M. Searle Bates|title=Religious Liberty: An Inquiry |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=i6QlNcyDxucC&pg=PA6&dq=League+of+Militant+Atheists&hl=en&ei=A7_6TdJKqqrQAeDuwJED&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=League%20of%20Militant%20Atheists&f=false|publisher=[[Kessinger Publishing Company]]|quote=On the other hand, the League of Militant Atheists reproted for 1932 an organization of 80,000 cells with 7,000,000 members, besides 1,500,000 children in affiliated groups. |date=19 October 2009}}</ref> In 1941, soon after the Nazi invasion of the USSR, the newspaper closed, and in 1947 the society itself folded, the task of the anti-religious propaganda being transferred to the more neutrally named All-Union Society for the Dissemination of Political and Scientific Knowledge (Всесоюзное общество по распространению политических и научных знаний).<ref>[http://slovari.yandex.ru/dict/bse/article/00073/55000.htm Союз воинствующих безбожников] (Union of the Militant Atheists) in the [[Great soviet Encyclopedia]]</ref> [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]], a Soviet concentration camp survivor, wrote of the The Union of the Militant Godless, stating that its members "went on rampages, blew out candles, and smashed icons with axes."<ref name="Solzhenitsyn">{{cite book|title=Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=lgPwzq0M9lkC&pg=PT72&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=fWXZTci_GMPY0QGfmun7Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CFUQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism%20soviet%20union&f=false|author=Joseph Pearce|publisher=Ignatius Press|quote=In the years immediately before and after the Revolution, the church was shunned and subjected to ridicule by young people and the intelligentsia. Solzhenitsyn rememberd how many fiery adherents were claimed by militant atheism in the 1920s. "Those who went on rampages, blew out candles, and smashed icons with axes have now crumbled into dust, like thier Union of the Militant Godless."|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> The society in its turn was in 1963 renamed to simply ''Obshchestvo "Znanie"'' ([[:ru:Знание (общество)|Общество "Знание"]], The All-Union Knowledge Society).<ref>[http://slovari.yandex.ru/dict/bse/article/00028/07900.htm "Знание", Всесоюзное общество] (The All-Union "Knowledge" Society) in the [[Great soviet Encyclopedia]]</ref> Since 1959 the society has published a monthly journal called ''Nauka i Religya'' (''Science and Religion'') which, during the Soviet era, described itself as "a fighting organ of militant atheism", rejecting the view that religion would disappear of itself. In 1961 the Ukrainian branch produced a similar journal called ''Militant Atheist'' (''Voivnichy Ateist'').<ref name="Ukraine">{{cite book|title=Religion, state, and politics in the Soviet Union and successor states|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=S9vPzWk9uowC&pg=PA44&dq=militant+atheism+soviet+union&hl=en&ei=TZ_1TdD2PIH4swOTkYC9Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false|author=Dr. John Anderson|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|quote=In 1961 the Ukrainian branch of the society started to produce a similar journal initially entitled ''Voivnichy ateist'' (Militant Atheist).|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref>

In general, scientists and party philosophers in the Soviet Union worked to establish a view of science acceptable to [[Marxist–Leninist atheism|Marxist-Leninist philosophy]].<ref name="Helge Kragh - Scientific Revisionism under the USSR">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=GB3Zst_4HLsC&pg=PA226&dq=big+bang+atheist+communist+science&hl=en&ei=pMZuTZfLAc-2tgeW2byFDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=big%20bang%20atheist%20communist%20science&f=false|title =Entropic Creation|author=Helge Kragh|publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]]|quote=In the attempts to establish an ideologically acceptable view of science, the new physics became a matter of considerable controversy in the young Soviet Union. Physicists and party philosophers discussed the problematic relationship of relativity theory and quantum mehanics to Marxist-Leninist philosophy.
|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> In addition to the [[antireligious]] substance of each course, the curriculum from the universities in the Soviet Union presented scientific findings correct or incorrect based on their supposed ideological positions, not on the objective, applied, and experimental essence of science.<ref name="Syllabi">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=8jkFD4ZXjd8C&pg=PA58&dq=science+God+militant+atheist&hl=en&ei=E-X1TfXbPIy-tgeRxb2HBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=science%20God%20militant%20atheist&f=false|title =The Plot to Kill God: findings from the Soviet experiment in Secularization |publisher=[[University of California Press]]|author=Paul Froese|quote=Militant atheists also believed that science disproved religion because God remained unseen, his miracles were never subject to empirical verification, and certain religious stories were inconceivable. The course syllabi from the atheist universities of the Soviet Union indicate how the topic of atheism was presented as a historically logical outcome of scientific development; Soviet college students chose from the following course selections: Physics...Chemistry...Geology...Mathematics...Biology...Medicine...What stands out in these syllabi, in addition to the antireligious substance of each course, is the way in which the curriculum appears to ignore the objective, applied, and experimental essence of science. Instead, scientific findings are presented as correct or incorrect based on their supposed ideological positions. Religion is presented as the historic cofounder of scientific advancement, with atheism providing the phislosophical framework from which to conduct accurate science.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> Some Soviet militant atheists also believed science disproved religion because God remained unseen, his miracles were never subject to empirical verification, and certain religious stories were scientifically inconceivable.<ref name="Empiricism">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=8jkFD4ZXjd8C&pg=PA58&dq=science+God+militant+atheist&hl=en&ei=E-X1TfXbPIy-tgeRxb2HBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=science%20God%20militant%20atheist&f=false|title =The Plot to Kill God: findings from the Soviet experiment in Secularization |publisher=[[University of California Press]]|author=Paul Froese|year=2008|quote=Militant atheists also believed science disproved religion because God remained unseen, his miracles were never subject to empirical verification, and certain religious stories were scientifically inconceivable. Following World War II and after the dissolution of the League of Militant Atheists, Soviet officials started a campaign to produce natural-scientific arguments against belief in God. For instance, Soviet scientists placed holy water under a microscope to prove that it had no special properties, and the corpses of saints were exhumed to demonstrate that they too were subject to corruption. These activities indicated that atheist propgandists held a very literal interpretation of religious language; for them, holy water and the bodies of saints were expected to hold some physical sign of their divinity.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> Bruce Sheiman, himself a leader in the [[Atheist 3.0]] movement, has criticized militant atheism for asserting this belief that science is capable of determining the [[existence of God]].<ref name="Existence">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=GvFUvFuUFWYC&pg=PT119&dq=militant+atheist+fundamentalism+sheiman&hl=en&ei=beP1Tan4JI26sAPd07S6Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false|title =An Atheist Defends Religion: Why Humanity is Better Off with Religion Than Without It|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|author=Bruce Sheiman|quote=The militant atheist asserts, incorrectly, that science is capable of determining the nonexistence of God.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref>

[[Joseph McCabe]], who has himself been called a militant atheist,<ref name="Joseph">{{cite book|url=|title =The Atheist World|publisher=[[Kessinger Publishing]]|author=Madalyn Murray O'Hair|quote=This is a listing of the great and near great compiled by Joseph McCabe, ex-Roman Catholic priest and militant Atheist of early in this century.}}</ref> wrote in 1936 that "Russia is doing the finest and soundest reconstructive work of our time, and it is doing this, not only without God, but on a basis of militant Atheism."<ref name="McCabe">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=OdUfcAAACAAJ&dq=is+the+position+of+atheism&hl=en&ei=8joJTpbBC6rz0gHYrKCRAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA|title =Is the Position of Atheism Growing Stronger?|publisher=[[Kessinger Publishing]]|author=[[Joseph McCabe]]|quote= For the news is spreading, and is triumphing even over reactionary opposition that Russia is doing the finest and soundest reconstructive work of our time, and it is doing this, not only without God, but on a basis of militant atheism.}}</ref> However, militant atheism failed to eradicate [[Christianity]], which resulted, starting in 1939, in the reopening of churches, the abandonment of the atheist teaching in schools, and the restoration of the seven day week.<ref name="Failure">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=G3Kb3rPreUgC&pg=PA455&dq=china+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=V_z2TYyNLK-z0AGiu6GUCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=china%20militant%20atheism&f=false|title =Christianity through the centuries: a History of the Christian Church|publisher=Zondervan|author=Earle E. Cairns|quote=The failure of militant atheism to eradicate Christianity; the persistence of belief in God, which approximately half of the Russian people expressed in the 1937 census; and the threatening international situation dictated the need for a strategic retreat after 1939. Churches were reopened, the antireligious carnivals were dropped, and the teaching of atheism in schools was abandoned. In 1943 Sergius was permitted to function as the patriarch of Moscow and all Russia. The seven-day week was resotred, seminaries were permitted to reopen, and the Orthodox church was freed of many burdensome restrictions.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref> Moreover, John W. Garver observes that the collapse of the Soviet Union ended the dominance of militant atheism over [[Central Asia|South-Central Asia]] and led to the reemergence of [[Islam]] in the region.<ref name="Reemergence">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=u2X1DNUATjkC&pg=PA130&dq=china+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=I_z2TZmePMGW0gGr_5CHCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=china%20militant%20atheism&f=false|title =China and Iran: Ancient Partners in a Post-Imperial World|publisher=[[University of Washington Press]]|author=John W. Garver|quote=Post-Soviet Central Asia witnessed a swift revival of Islam. The collapse of Soviet power lifted a seventy-year-long reign of militant atheism and opened the way to reemergence of the long-suppressed Islamic faith of the Central Asian peoples.|accessdate = 2007–10–18}}</ref>

===Kyrgyzstan===
In 1929, when Soviet officials established the Militant Atheist-Marxist Association in the [[Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic]], over 1,800 clerics—[[Minister (Christianity)|Christian priests]], Jewish [[rabbi]]s, and Muslim [[mullah]]s—were denied their electoral rights.<ref name="Kyrgyzstan">{{cite book|author=Mark Avrum Ehrlich|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=NoPZu79hqaEC&pg=PA1138&dq=encyclopedia+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=D6AYTrn3NbS30AH1zriXBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFMQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=militant&f=false|title=Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture (3 Volume Set)|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|quote=1929 Soviet authorities establish a branch of the Militant Atheist-Marxist Association in Kyrgyzstan. More than 1,800 clerics—priests, rabbis, and mullahs—are denied their electoral rights. Nevertheless, Jews attempt to observe Jewish religious traditions in secret.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref> Despite this, [[Jews]] [[Jewish prayer|worshiped]] in secrecy.<ref name="Kyrgyzstan">{{cite book|author=Mark Avrum Ehrlich|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=NoPZu79hqaEC&pg=PA1138&dq=encyclopedia+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=D6AYTrn3NbS30AH1zriXBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFMQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=militant&f=false|title=Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture (3 Volume Set)|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|quote=1929 Soviet authorities establish a branch of the Militant Atheist-Marxist Association in Kyrgyzstan. More than 1,800 clerics—priests, rabbis, and mullahs—are denied their electoral rights. Nevertheless, Jews attempt to observe Jewish religious traditions in secret.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref>

===Moldova===
In [[Moldova]], according to Mihaela Robila, during "the several decades of state-sponsored militant atheism, drastic methods were used" to prohibit the "expression of religious life"; such methods included the "forcible destruction of religious monuments, liquidation of churches, and mass deportation" of believers of different religions to [[Siberia]].<ref name="Deportation">{{cite book|author=Mihaela Robila|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=eYDNdZvc8wkC&pg=PA181&dq=liquidation+of+religion+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=xKz1Td2nLYr4swPXvYy8Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CE8Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=liquidation%20of%20religion%20militant%20atheism&f=false|title=Families in Eastern Europe|publisher=[[Emerald Group Publishing]]|quote=quote=During several decades of state-sponsored "militant atheism," drastic methods were used to suppress and prohibit any expression of religious life. There was a forcible destruction of religious monuments, liquidation of churches, and mass deportation to Siberia of religious people and believers of different religions|date=19 October 2009}}</ref>

==French Revolution==
[[Image:Cruikshank - The Radical's Arms.png|thumb|180px|1819 [[Caricature]] by English [[caricaturist]] [[George Cruikshank]]. Titled "The Radical's Arms", it depicts the infamous guillotine. "No God! No Religion! No King! No Constitution!" is written in the republican banner.]]
[[Counter-Enlightenment]] writers frequently charged the [[philosophes]] with militant atheism which sought to destroy the [[Christian Church|Church]] and the [[Monarchism|monarchical]] form of government."<ref name="Counter">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=wVIoCtB3m74C&pg=PA329&dq=encyclopedia+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=k58YTufNJcj10gGGi93sDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CFQQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=militant&f=false|author=[[Mark Bevir]]|title =Encyclopedia of Political Theory, Volume 1|publisher=[[SAGE Publications]]|quote=Moreover, materialism simultaneously was expected to undermine religious faith, and the philosophes, despite their wide variety of religious views, were charged with a militant atheism bent on the destruction of church and throne alike. As these pillars of traditional society were under attack, Counter-Enlightenment writers predicted horrific scenes of anarchy, chaos, perversion, and bloodshed. When the French Revolution culminated in regicide and the Reign of Terror, the bloody warnings of the anti-philosophes suddenly appeared prophetic.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> Two prominent militant atheists of the [[French Revolution]] included [[Jacques Hébert]] and [[Baron Anacharsis Cloots]], who both advocated the [[Dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution|dechristianisation of France]].<ref name="Cloots"/> Cloots, says [[Alister McGrath]], did not believe in [[religious tolerance]].<ref name="Cloots"/> He vigorously campaigned for the atheistic [[Cult of Reason]], which was officially proclaimed on 10 November 1793.<ref name="Campaign">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=24Xk90Bsp4gC&pg=PT55&dq=french+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=Tuv6TZaKB8O1tge4lcG8Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=snippet&q=militant%20atheist&f=false|author=[[Alister E. McGrath]]|title =The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World|publisher=[[Random House]]|quote=Where Robespierre sought to advocate the religion of the Supreme Being, around which the French people could unite, Cloots vigorously pursued a more atheistic approach. He was an active member of the faction that successfully campaigned for the atheistic "Cult of Reason," which was officially proclaimed on November 10, 1793.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> According to James Gray, [[Thomas Holcroft]],<ref name="Holcroft">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Dnqi3gRxgvQC&pg=PA164&dq=encyclopedia+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=D6AYTrn3NbS30AH1zriXBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEwQ6AEwBzgK#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheist&f=false|author=Christine L. Krueger; George Stade; Karen Karbiener; Book Builders Llc (COR)|title =Encyclopædia of British Writers: 19th and 20th Centuries|publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]]|quote=Holcroft, Thomas (1745-1809) ''playwright'', ''novelist'' A militant atheist and a fervent believer in the individual's capacity for self-impovement, he was drawn into a circle of political and social radicals that included Thomas Paine, John Tooke, William GODWIN, and Mary WOLLSTONEGRAFT.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Corresponding">{{cite web|url=http://www.csulb.edu/colleges/cla/ebro/?p=531|author=[[James Gray]]|title =Review of The French Revolution and the London Stage 1789-1805, by George Taylor|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|quote=In two chapters devoted to reactions of the English stage to the Reign of Terror in France, Taylor notes that Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809), a militant atheist and a pro-Revolutionary zealot, helped to found in 1792 the London Corresponding Society, whose main aim was to connect with radical elements in Paris in the same year.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> an English militant atheist, was instrumental in founding the [[London Corresponding Society]] in 1792, "whose main aim was to connect with radical elements in [[Paris]] in the same year".<ref name="Corresponding">{{cite web|url=http://www.csulb.edu/colleges/cla/ebro/?p=531|author=[[James Gray]]|title =Review of The French Revolution and the London Stage 1789-1805, by George Taylor|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|quote=In two chapters devoted to reactions of the English stage to the Reign of Terror in France, Taylor notes that Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809), a militant atheist and a pro-Revolutionary zealot, helped to found in 1792 the London Corresponding Society, whose main aim was to connect with radical elements in Paris in the same year.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref>

==PRC and the Cultural Revolution==

The [[People's Republic of China]] is an [[atheist state]],<ref name="China">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=X49uEF5XUX0C&pg=PA108&dq=state+atheism+china&hl=en&ei=c8GiTaLkEIXegQet67XaBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false|title =China in the 21st century|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|quote=China is still officially an atheist country, but many religions are growing rapidly, including evangelical Christianity (estimates of how many Chinese have converted to some form of Protestantism range widely, but at least tens of millions have done so) and various hybrid sects that combine elements of traditional creeds and belief systems (Buddhism mixed with local folk cults, for example).|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Atheist State">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=BY4YAQAAMAAJ&q=north+korea+atheist+state&dq=north+korea+atheist+state&hl=en&ei=wUabTedhhMuBB9_U3I4H&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAQ|title =The State of Religion Atlas|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|quote=Atheism continues to be the official position of the governments of China, North Korea and Cuba.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> as atheism is officially endorsed by the ruling [[Chinese Communist Party]].<ref name="Revolt"/> When the People's Republic of China was established, militant atheism compelled the Party to impose control on and limit religious suppliers.<ref name="PRC">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=SX8ZTp2vdu4C&pg=PA432&dq=new+atheism+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=D7T2TbCNJZO4tweh7oTiCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=new%20atheism%20militant%20atheism&f=false|title =The New Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Religion|publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]]|quote=As soon as the PRC was established, militant atheism compelled the party to impose control and limitations on religious suppliers. Foreign missionaries, who were considered a part of Western imperialism, were expelled, and cultic or heterodox sects that were regarded as reactionary organizations (''fandong hui dao men''), were banned. Further, major religions - Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism, which were difficult to eliminate and possesed diplomatic value for the isolated regime - were co-opted into national associations.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> As a result, foreign [[Mission (Christianity)|missionaries]] were expelled from the nation.<ref name="PRC"/> Furthermore, major religions including [[Buddhism]], [[Daoism]], [[Islam]] and [[Christianity]] were co-opted into national associations, while minor sects were labelled as reactionary organisations and were therefore banned.<ref name="PRC"/>

However, during the [[Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution]], a new form of militant atheism made great efforts to eradicate religion completely.<ref name="Revolt"/><ref name="Contrast">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=jn-kcJc47m4C&pg=PA129&dq=Charles+Bradlaugh+first+militant+Atheist&hl=en&ei=aXMPTuDLC6f10gGrtYW0Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CFEQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheist&f=false|title =Religion and Modern Society: Citizenship, Secularisation and the State |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|author=Bryan S. Turner|quote=The contrast between religion in American and militant atheism in China could not have been more stark or profound. While the Red Guards under Mao Zedong's leadership were busy destorying Buddhist pagodas, Catholic churches and Daoist temples, the Christian Right were equally busy condemning the communists. |accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> Under this militant atheism espoused by [[Mao Zedong]], [[houses of worship]] were shut down; Buddhist [[pagodas]], Daoist [[temples]], Christian [[Church (building)|churches]], and Muslim [[mosques]] were destroyed; artifacts were smashed; and [[sacred texts]] were burnt.<ref name="Revolt"/><ref name="Contrast">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=jn-kcJc47m4C&pg=PA129&dq=Charles+Bradlaugh+first+militant+Atheist&hl=en&ei=aXMPTuDLC6f10gGrtYW0Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CFEQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheist&f=false|title =Religion and Modern Society: Citizenship, Secularisation and the State |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|author=Bryan S. Turner|quote=The contrast between religion in American and militant atheism in China could not have been more stark or profound. While the Red Guards under Mao Zedong's leadership were busy destorying Buddhist pagodas, Catholic churches and Daoist temples, the Christian Right were equally busy condemning the communists. |accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> Moreover, it was a criminal offence to even possess a religious artifact or sacred text.<ref name="Revolt"/> However, following the death of [[Mao Zedong]] in 1976, many former policies towards religious freedom returned although they are limited and tenuous, as religion is closely regulated by the government.<ref name="Regulation">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=mofX6zdChgcC&pg=PA132&dq=china+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=I_z2TZmePMGW0gGr_5CHCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CFgQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=china%20militant%20atheism&f=false|title =The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics)|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|quote=Following Mao Zedong's death in 1976, however, many of the former "tolerations" for religion gradually returned. Like the former policies of religious toleration, however, freedoms were limited and tenuous. Modern China remains a nation where there are few social pressures preventing involvement, but religion is still closely regulated by the sate and atheism remains part of the official policy. |accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref>

According to philosopher [[Julia Ching]], the [[Falun Gong]] religion was seen by [[Jiang Zemin]], the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, as an ideological threat to militant atheism and historical materialism.<ref>The Falun Gong: Religious and political implications American Asian Review/January 1, 2001 By Professor [[Julie Ching]] Institute of Asian Studies University of Toronto [http://www.rickross.com/reference/fa_lun_gong/falun258.html]</ref>

==Politics==
===History===
Sociologist [[Rodney Stark]] describes [[Thomas Hobbes]] and the other originators of the 'social "scientific" study of religion' as "militant opponents of religion" whose "militant atheism...was motivated partly by politics".<ref>[[Rodney Stark]] "Atheism, Faith and the Social Scientific Study of Religion" ''Journal of Contemporary Religion'' Vol 14 No 1 1999, pp. 41–62.</ref> The 19th-century political activist [[Charles Bradlaugh]] is credited as the first militant atheist in the history of Western civilization.<ref name="Bradlaugh0">{{cite web|url=http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/madalyn_ohair/agnostic.html|title=Agnostics|author=Madalyn Murray O'Hair|publisher=American Atheist Online Services|quote=Charles Bradlaugh was the first militant Atheist in the history of Western civilization. He was elected to the British parliament six times, and each time that body refused to seat him because he was an Atheist -- and because he would not swear his allegiance to queen and country, so help him "God." Everyone in England knew Bradlaugh and his fight, and he raised the issue of Atheism to every person in public life as he sought allies.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Bradlaugh1">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=PitAMz7VfKAC&pg=PA199&lpg=PA199&dq=Charles+Bradlaugh+was+the+first+militant+Atheist+in+the+history+of+Western+civilization&source=bl&ots=lT1dYosluq&sig=opo0T-utKYp9K4QkQv7xmhZ1bs4&hl=en&ei=6nEPTpHfDsu20AHC0oGJDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFcQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=Charles%20Bradlaugh%20was%20the%20first%20militant%20Atheist%20in%20the%20history%20of%20Western%20civilization&f=false|title=Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits|author=Ian Hill Nish, Hugh Cortazzi|publisher=[[Psychology Press]]|quote=At South Place, Robert Young also came to know Charles Bradlaugh (1833-91), the first militant Atheist.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Bradlaugh2">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=qVrUTUelE6YC&pg=PA566&dq=Charles+Bradlaugh+first+militant+Atheist&hl=en&ei=aXMPTuDLC6f10gGrtYW0Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Charles%20Bradlaugh%20first%20militant%20Atheist&f=false|title=Dictionary of nineteenth-century journalism in Great Britain and Ireland|author=Laurel Brake, Marysa Demoor|publisher=[[Academia Press]]|quote=A well-set Sunday weekly* selling for 1 d, the ''Secular Review's'' stance was representative of a relatively moderate style of Secularism, sympatheitc to socialism and aligned against the individualism and militant atheism of Charles Bradlaugh and his ''National Reformer''. In its discussion of religion, philosophy, ethics, science and history, and in reviewing Secularism and 'what purports to be so, and is not', the title's stated domain of inquiry was 'this world, without implying disregard or denial of another' (Holyoake 1876).|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Bradlaugh3">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=mnURdbCeLOMC&pg=PT190&dq=Charles+Bradlaugh+first+militant+Atheist&hl=en&ei=aXMPTuDLC6f10gGrtYW0Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEYQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Charles%20Bradlaugh%20first%20militant%20Atheist&f=false|title=Globalizing Theology: Belief and Practice in an Era of World Christianity|author=Craig Ott; Harold A. Netland|publisher=[[Baker Academic]]|quote=She was a close friend and coworker of Charles Bradlaugh, the militant atheist and first president of the National Secular Society (set up in 1866), and helped to edit his journal, the National Reformer.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Bradlaugh4">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Ge5hxcscTkYC&pg=PA286&dq=Charles+Bradlaugh+first+militant+Atheist&hl=en&ei=aXMPTuDLC6f10gGrtYW0Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEEQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Charles%20Bradlaugh%20first%20militant%20Atheist&f=false|title=History, Humanity and Evolution: Essays for John C. Greene |author=James Richard Moore|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|quote=Though at first allied with the militant atheist Charles Bradlaugh (1833-91) and his National Secular Society (NSS), the elder Watts refused in 1877 to defend Bradlaugh's right to republish Knowlton's Fruits of Philosophy, a pamphlet on on birth control.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Bradlaugh5">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=jn-kcJc47m4C&pg=PA129&dq=Charles+Bradlaugh+first+militant+Atheist&hl=en&ei=aXMPTuDLC6f10gGrtYW0Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CFEQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Religion and Modern Society: Citizenship, Secularisation and the State|author=Bryan S. Turner|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|quote=Secularism, when under the inspiration of militant atheists such as Charles Bradlaugh, Member of Parliament for Northhampton in Great Britan, assumed a more striden, uncrompromising and critical relationship to religious belief.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> The term has also been applied to other 19th-century political thinkers such as [[Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach]],<ref>The Debate Between Feuerbach and Stirner: An Introduction, in ''The Philosophical Forum'' '''8''', number 2-3-4, (1976)- available on the web [http://www.logoslibrary.eu/pls/wordtc/new_wordtheque.w6_start.doc?code=56879&lang=EN here]</ref> [[Annie Besant]],<ref name="Besant1">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=rGiSfU7PJhcC&pg=PA155&dq=Annie+Besant+militant+atheist&hl=en&ei=o3cPTqiDMunf0QG1lP37DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Theosophist Magazine Collection 1920-1955|author=Annie Wood Besant|publisher=[[Kessinger Publishing]]|quote=Madame Blavatsky, a Russian, suspected of being a sypy, converted Anglo-Indians to a passioante belief in her Theosophy mission, even when the Jingo fever was the hottist, and in her declining years she succeeded in winning over to the new-old religion Annie Besant, who had for years fought in the forefront of the van of militant atheism.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Besant2">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=3lobX1DC_i0C&pg=PA127&dq=Annie+Besant+militant+atheist&hl=en&ei=o3cPTqiDMunf0QG1lP37DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Annie%20Besant%20militant%20atheist&f=false|title=Globalization and educational rights: an intercivilizational analysis|author=Joel H. Spring|publisher=[[Psychology Press]]|quote=Annie Besant had an important influence on Nehru's family and on social reform in India. Born in 1847, she was known in England as "Red Annie" because of her activities as a militant atheist, socialist, and trade union organizer.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Besant3">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=KV-ZFdDd16QC&pg=PA139&dq=Annie+Besant+militant+atheist&hl=en&ei=o3cPTqiDMunf0QG1lP37DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Annie%20Besant%20militant%20atheist&f=false|title=Deviating voices: women and orthodox religious tradition|author=S. W. Jackman, Sydney Wayne Jackman|publisher=James Clarke & Co.|quote=The final chapter of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's life was to be shared with the individual who probably became her most famous disciple, namely, Annie Besant, who had had two children while married to an Anglican clergyman, but was now a militant atheist and radical.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> and [[Schopenhauer]].<ref name="Schopenhauer">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books/about/Schopenhauer_religion_and_morality.html?hl=fr&id=qdHD7LnOseYC|title=Schopenhauer, religion and morality: the humble path to ethics|author=Gerard Mannion|publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]]|quote=This work challenges the textbook assessment of Schopenhauer as militant atheist and absolute pessimist.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> A significant atheist movement known as the Holbachians, disciples of militant atheist [[Baron d'Holbach]],<ref name="Holbach">{{cite book|author=Gerald Robert McDermott|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Q4-W7O854xgC&pg=PA27&dq=militant+atheism+jews&hl=en&ei=5X4cTsTnFsKtgQeK253UCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEIQ6AEwBTgU#v=onepage&q=militant%20&f=false|title=Jonathan Edwards Confronts the Gods: Christian Theology, Enlightenment Religion, and Non-Christian Faiths|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|quote=The Holbachians were disciples of Baron d'Holbach, a militant atheist who opposed both Christianity and desim (because it was theistic).|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> opposed [[Judaism]], [[Christianity]] and [[Deism]].<ref name="Holbach">{{cite book|author=Gerald Robert McDermott|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Q4-W7O854xgC&pg=PA27&dq=militant+atheism+jews&hl=en&ei=5X4cTsTnFsKtgQeK253UCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEIQ6AEwBTgU#v=onepage&q=militant%20&f=false|title=Jonathan Edwards Confronts the Gods: Christian Theology, Enlightenment Religion, and Non-Christian Faiths|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|quote=The Holbachians were disciples of Baron d'Holbach, a militant atheist who opposed both Christianity and desim (because it was theistic).|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Holbachians">{{cite book|author=[[Hyam Maccoby]]|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=h6Wo5CIgk84C&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=holbachians&source=bl&ots=GfD1H_c8Fh&sig=RpW9x3B5B3h8g50OU7wHL7abYSY&hl=en&ei=GoEcTvWhD4vQgAftqcjJCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=holbachians&f=false|title=Antisemitism and Modernity: Innovation and Continuity|publisher=[[Psychology Press]]|quote=The Holbachians formed a considerable atheistic movement, which specialized in attacking Judaism as a means of denigrating its offshoot Christianity.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref>

The Polish religious leader [[Stefan Wyszynski]] decided during his imprisonment (1953–1956) "to defend the faith of the nation against militant atheism by means of the power of the [[Virgin Mary]]."<ref>George Weigel ''The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism'' p. 114.</ref>

In 1952 philosopher Herbert W. Schneider, when writing on Religion in 20th Century America, wrote of the "few remaining militant atheists" in the [[United States]].<ref name="Few">{{cite book|author=[[Will Herberg]]|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=-STjdtc075gC&pg=PA65&dq=militant+atheism+jews&hl=en&ei=iHscTvb4CeLj0gHjg_27Bw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CFQQ6AEwCTgo#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheists&f=false|title=Protestant, Catholic, Jew: an essay in American religious sociology|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|quote=Herbert W. Schneider speaks of the "dwindling band of radical secularists" and the "few remaining militant atheists and freethinkers" (Herbert Wallace Schneider, ''Religion in 20th Century America'' [Harvard, 1952], pp. 32, 31). |accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref>

===Italian Socialist movement===
[[Benito Mussolini]] was a militant atheist in his early life.<ref name="Mussolini1">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=kne26UnE1wQC&pg=PA408&dq=militant+atheism+mussolini&hl=en&ei=cGcPTvj8AuO70AGu4YyCDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Fascism: Post-war fascisms|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|quote=Mussolini did not have any philosophy: he only had rhetoric. He was a militant atheist at the beginning and alter signed the Convention with the Church and welcomed the bishops who blessed the Fascist pennants. In his early anticerlical years, according to a likely legend, he once asked God, in order to prove His existence to strike him down on the spot.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Mussolini2">{{cite book|author=United States. Directorate for Armed Forces Information and Education|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=yh8OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA172&dq=militant+atheism+mussolini&hl=en&ei=Qk4PTrrbCoS-sQPQ4riBDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CE8Q6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheist&f=false|title=Ideas in Conflict: Writing about the Great Issues of Civilization|publisher=Wadsworth Publishing|quote=He became a militant atheist at an early age and throughout his life, flouted the conventions of Christain morality. |accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Mussolini3">{{cite book|author=United States. Directorate for Armed Forces Information and Education|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=yh8OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA172&dq=militant+atheism+mussolini&hl=en&ei=Qk4PTrrbCoS-sQPQ4riBDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CE8Q6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheist&f=false|title=Ideas in Conflict: Writing about the Great Issues of Civilization|publisher=Wadsworth Publishing|quote=He became a militant atheist at an early age and throughout his life, flouted the conventions of Christian morality.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Mussolini6">{{cite book|author=[[William Henry Chamberlin]]|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=uPI4AAAAIAAJ&q=militant+atheism+mussolini&dq=militant+atheism+mussolini&hl=en&ei=wWkPTrehO7O20AGW2-CvDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBA|title=The World's Iron Age|publisher=[[The Macmillan Company]]|quote=
Fascism, according to the former militant atheist Mussolini, "respects the God of the ascetics, of the saints, of the heroes and also God as prayed to by the primitive heart of the people."|date=1941|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Mussolini7">{{cite book|author=Maxine Block, E. Mary Trow |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=bLSDTRdhgKMC&q=militant+atheism+mussolini&dq=militant+atheism+mussolini&hl=en&ei=wWkPTrehO7O20AGW2-CvDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEIQ6AEwBQ|title=Current Biography: Who's News and Why, 1942|publisher=[[H. W. Wilson Company]]|quote=It was also pointed out that Mussolini had been a militant atheist and that the accord with the Pope was one the latter would one day regret, although the Catholic Church had supported the crusade for nationalism and "against Bolshevism.|date=1942accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Mussolini8">{{cite book|author=Alfred Mitchell Bingham|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=tIbXAAAAMAAJ&q=militant+atheism+mussolini&dq=militant+atheism+mussolini&hl=en&ei=4W4PTuOLOKnA0AGWpKDIDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBTgK|title=Man's estate: adventures in economic discovery|publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]]|quote=Mussolini was a militant atheist, a militant republican, and a militant Marxist, before he became a fascist. |date=1942|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> Like other socialists of the Romagna, Mussolini adopted the militant atheism of the [[Italian Socialist Party|Italian Socialist movement]].<ref name="Mussolini4">{{cite book|author=Jasper Godwin Ridley|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Bp0UAQAAIAAJ&q=militant+atheism+mussolini&dq=militant+atheism+mussolini&hl=en&ei=wWkPTrehO7O20AGW2-CvDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAQ|title=Mussolini: a biography|publisher=Cooper Square Press|quote=Mussolini, like all the Socialists of the Romagna, had adopted the militant atheism of the Italian Socialist movement.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> In his later life, however, Mussolini signed a [[Lateran Treaty|Concordat with the Church]] in order to consort with the [[bishops]] who blessed the Facist banners.<ref name="Mussolini1">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=kne26UnE1wQC&pg=PA408&dq=militant+atheism+mussolini&hl=en&ei=cGcPTvj8AuO70AGu4YyCDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Fascism: Post-war fascisms|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|quote=Mussolini did not have any philosophy: he only had rhetoric. He was a militant atheist at the beginning and later signed the Convention with the Church and welcomed the bishops who blessed the Facist pennants. In his early anticerlical years, according to a likely legend, he once asked God, in order to prove His existence to strike him down on the spot.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Mussolini5">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=XkLsB1NExjEC&pg=PT86&dq=militant+atheism+mussolini&hl=en&ei=wWkPTrehO7O20AGW2-CvDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Five Moral Pieces|publisher=[[Mariner Books]]|quote=He started out as a militant atheist, only to sign the Concordat with the Church and to consort with the bishops who blessed the Facist banners.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref>

===Today===
Figures in the 21st century in the USA and the UK who have been described as militant atheists include [[Michael Newdow]].<ref>''The New American'' Vol. 18, No. 15, 29 July 2002.</ref><ref name="Newdow">{{cite web|url=http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37871|title=Militant atheism on display|author=[[Les Kinsolving]]|publisher=[[WorldNetDaily]]|quote=But that right is not enough for militant atheist Newdow. He wants the Supreme Court of the United States to eliminate the right of the Congress to vote to include the two words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. His demand in court, which was affirmed by California's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, is an attempt to censor the majority's free exercise of both the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech and freedom of religious expression. That this affirmation "under God" is by no means worship – any more that it is compulsory for all to say it – makes no difference to this militant atheist.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> In ''[[The Washington Monthly]]'', [[Kevin Drum]] applies the term to [[Polly Toynbee]].<ref name="Tonybee">{{cite web|url=http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_12/007698.php|title=Huffing over Narnia|publisher=[[The Washington Monthly]]|quote=I'm not an especially militant atheist myself, but I have to admit that it's bracing to see one in high dudgeon occasionally. Today, the Guardian's famously acerbic Polly Toynbee, honorary associate of Britain's National Secular Society, takes on the Christian imagery of CS Lewis's Narnia books: Philip Pullman — he of the marvellously secular trilogy His Dark Materials — has called Narnia "one of the most ugly, poisonous things I have ever read".|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> The Argentinian Supreme Court Judge [[Carmen Argibay]] also describes herself as a "militant atheist",<ref name="Argibay1">{{cite web|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=KVvhAAAAMAAJ&q=Carmen+Argibay++militant+atheist&dq=Carmen+Argibay++militant+atheist&hl=en&ei=4HwPTuSMC9S10AHQzOW_Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA|title=The Tablet|publisher=Tablet Pub. Co.|quote=As soon as her appointment was announced, Carmen Argibay told journalists she was a "militant atheist" and in favour of relaxing the strict abortion laws. Her declarations were met with a barrage of criticism from Catholic media.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="Argibay2">{{cite web|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=9vAtAAAAYAAJ&q=Carmen+Argibay++militant+atheist&dq=Carmen+Argibay++militant+atheist&hl=en&ei=4HwPTuSMC9S10AHQzOW_Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAQ|title=The Catholic world report, Volume 14|publisher=[[Ignatius Press]]|quote=Argentine President Nestor Kirchner has proposed Carmen Argibay , who has described herself as a "militant atheist" and proponent of legal abortion to be a member of the Supreme Court.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> and the journalist and campaigner [[Paul Foot]] has been praised as a "militant atheist".<ref name="Foot">{{cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2004/jul/25/1|title=The epistles of Saint Paul|publisher=[[The Guardian]]|quote= Paul Foot, militant atheist, revolutionary socialist and a man who couldn't listen to a pious sentiment without barking out a guffaw, would have agreed.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> Moreover, comedian [[Kathy Griffin]] identifies herself as a militant atheist.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://outsmartmagazine.com/this_issue/?storyid=1129229903 | title=Foul-Mouthed and Funny | work=OutSmart | author=Blase DiStefano | date=June 2007 | accessdate=2007-07-01 |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20070927190140/http://outsmartmagazine.com/this_issue/?storyid=1129229903 |archivedate = 2007-09-27}}</ref>

==New Atheism==
The terms ''militant atheist'' and ''atheist fundamentalist'', have been used to criticize the [[New Atheism]] movement.<ref name="Four Horsemen and Atheist Fundamentalism"/>
For example, Ian H. Hutchinson, professor of nuclear science and engineering at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], has stated that the New Atheism movement constitutes militant atheism because demonstrates an "attack on religion" and a "lack of respect at all for religion."<ref name="New Atheism"/>
Prof. Hutchinson also states that the arguments employed by the New Atheism movement are extensions of intellectual threads which have existed since the late 19th century.<ref name="New Atheism"/>
As such, in the [[academic journal]] titled "International Journal for Philosophy of Religion," New Atheist leaders including Harris, Dawkins, and Hitchens are referred to as militant atheists.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Militant atheism, pragmatism, and the God-shaped hole |journal=International Journal for Philosophy of Religion|date=|first=Andrew|last=Fiala|coauthors=|volume=65|issue=3|pages=139–51|id= |url=http://www.springerlink.com/content/qp43432050116373/}}</ref> The same phenomenon takes place in the academic journal titled "Studies: an Irish Quarterly Review,"<ref name="Quarterly">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=oAAnAQAAIAAJ&q=militant+atheist+dawkins&dq=militant+atheist+dawkins&hl=en&ei=dbAOTpDYMfS10AGrsfHFDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEgQ6AEwBzgK|title=Studies: an Irish quarterly review|publisher=Talbot Press|quote=The leader of militant atheism in this part of the world is Richard Dawkins, a zoologist by training, who holds a chair founded for him at Oxford University.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> and "[[The Literary Review]],"<ref name="Literary">{{cite book|author=Gillian Greenwood|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=qUXuAAAAMAAJ&q=militant+atheist+dawkins&dq=militant+atheist+dawkins&hl=en&ei=Cb4OTreCEMnN0AH49qmVDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBjge|title=The Literary Review|issues=329-339|publisher=[[Fairleigh Dickinson University]]|quote=
Yet there is something wrong with Dawkins. He has an obsessive hatred of God or, as he would put it, the idea of God and those who propagate the idea. His life is dominated by his militant atheism.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> as well as in [[Academic publishing|academic literature]], such as the [[Rowman & Littlefield]] published ''The Secularization Debate'',<ref name="RandL">{{cite book|author=William H. Swatos, Daniel V. A. Olson|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=2P_RJqdUYBAC&pg=PA57&dq=militant+atheist+dawkins&hl=en&ei=jcAOToKwMpOssAPs3fSnDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAjgo#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheism&f=false|title=The Secularization Debate|publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]]|quote=
But, aren't some scientists militant atheists who write books to discredit religion — Richard Dawkins and Carl Sagan for example? Of course. But, it also is worth note that most of those, like Dawkins and Sagan, are marginal to the scientific community for lack of significant scientific work. And possibly even more important is the fact that theologians (cf., Cupitt 1997) and professors of religious studies (cf., Mack 1996) are a far more prolific source of popular works of atheism.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> and the [[Sydney University Press]] published ''Politics and Religion in the New Century,'' for example.<ref name="Sydney">{{cite book|author=Philip Andrew Quadrio, Carrol Besseling|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=1Zz88rvBJXUC&pg=PA32&dq=militant+atheist+dawkins&hl=en&ei=jcAOToKwMpOssAPs3fSnDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAzgo#v=onepage&q=militant%20atheist%20dawkins&f=false|title=Politics and Religion in the New Century: Philosophical Reflections|publisher=[[Sydney University Press]]|quote=There is, therefore, a particular irony in the most recent spate of militant atheist attacks on the irrationality of religious belief (Dennett 2006; Dawkins 2006; Hitchens 2007; Harris 2004, 2007) which are, at the same time, the most conspicuous examples of slavish commitment to crude, popular ethnic stereotypes, combined with an almost delusional misrepresentation of the facts of recent history. These militant atheists use the rhetoric of critical rationality to wage ideological warfare, not just against religion, but against Muslims.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref>

These individuals have also been labelled as militant atheists by other atheists such as [[Michael Ruse]],<ref name="RuseEk">{{cite book|author=[[Michael Ruse]]|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=HmZSGfHprh8C&pg=PA132&dq=militant+atheist+dawkins&hl=en&ei=PrMOTvH-ILCx0AHBsIiTDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAzgU#v=onepage&q&f=false|title =Mystery of mysteries: is evolution a social construction?|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|quote=On reading Dawkins's more recent writings, where he has appointed himself the spokesman for militant atheism as well as militant Darwinism, one might be tempted to link the two.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref><ref name="RuseDo">{{cite book|author=[[Michael Ruse]]|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=XQqBP5trqCIC&pg=PA515&dq=militant+atheist+dawkins&hl=en&ei=WLwOTtuzOJOEsgL97tWQCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEgQ6AEwBjgU#v=onepage&q&f=false|title =Philosophy after Darwin: classic and contemporary readings|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|quote=To be sure, there are militant Darwinian atheists such as Richard Dawkins. But I see no reason to accept the claim of people like Dawkins that Darwinian science dictates atheism (Dawkins 1986).|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> and Bruce Sheiman, a leader in the [[Atheism 3.0]] movement, who stated that "when militant atheists portray religion, they critique every political and organizational misdeed that can be attributed to it" but "portray science in idealized terms, untainted by commercial interests, political intrusions, and ethical conundrums."<ref name="Sheiman">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=GvFUvFuUFWYC&pg=PT172&dq=dawkins+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=Rlf4Taf8J7So0AGQybCTCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=dawkins%20militant%20atheism&f=false|title =An Atheist Defends Religion|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|quote=Militant atheists like Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris go to great lengths in their books to relegate religion to the lowest cultural status while placing reason and science well above it. The portray science in idealized terms, untainted by commercial interests, political intrusions, and ethical conundrums. But when militant atheists portray religion, they critique every political and organizational misdeed that can be attributed to it. Militant atheists speak of organized religion, but not, correspondingly, of ''organized science''. To be fair, militant athiests need to view religion in the same sanitized way as they view science—or understand science through the same lens of doubt and skepticism as they view religion.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> Richard Dawkins has, in turn, compared Ruse to "[[Neville Chamberlain]], the British prime minister best known for his appeasement policy toward [[Nazi Germany]]."<ref name="Chamberlain">{{cite web|url=http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=1235|author=Mark A. Kellner|title =Is Aggressive Atheism Ascending?|publisher=[[Adventist Review]]|quote=In his book, Dawkins likens philosopher Michael Ruse, a Florida State University philosophy professor who has worked on the creationism/evolution debate in public schools, to Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister best known for his appeasement policy toward Nazi Germany. Ruse, in turn, accuses "militant atheism" of not extending the same professional and academic courtesy to religion that it demands from others. Atheism's new dogmatic streak is not that different from the religious extremists it calls to task, Ruse said.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref> Other articles in the popular media make reference to the leaders representing the New Atheism movement as militant atheists or atheist fundamentalists.<ref>M. Paulli, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/mar/28/news.michellepauli Spoils split at 'Nibbie' awards]</ref><ref>
[http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-end-of-faith-by-sam-harris-745110.html Johann Harri in] [[The Independent]]</ref><ref>[http://www.slate.com/id/2137743/ The Belief Trap: The evolutionary explanation of religion gets stuck.] By Judith Shulevitz, [[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] 8 March 2006.</ref>

===Media===
[[File:Richard dawkins lecture.jpg|thumb|upright|Richard Dawkins lecturing on his book ''The God Delusion''; 2006.]]
Journalist [[Charles Moore (journalist)|Charles Moore]] in the ''[[Daily Telegraph]]'', authored an article entitled "Militant atheists: too clever for their own good",<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/04/07/do0701.xml "Militant atheists: too clever for their own good"]</ref>
which discussed Richard Dawkins, and mentioned Christopher Hitchens and [[A. C. Grayling]]; the author felt that the atheist movement may be acquiring the characteristics of "intolerance, dogmatism, righteousness, moral contempt for one's opponents."<ref name="Moore">
{{cite book|author=Charles Moore|title=Militant atheists: too clever for their own good|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3638990/Militant-atheists-too-clever-for-their-own-good.html|quote=It is no exaggeration to describe the movement popularized by the likes of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennet, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens as a new and particularly zealous form of fundamentalism— an atheist fundamentalism.|publisher=[[Brill Academic Publishers]]|quote=I feel that atheism may be acquiring precisely those characteristics that atheists so dislike about religion - intolerance, dogmatism, righteousness, moral contempt for one's opponents. Dawkins also tells us that "there are very few atheists in prison". He suggests that "atheism is correlated with higher education, intelligence or reflectiveness, which might counteract criminal impulses". What begins to emerge - and it lurked strongly behind the anti-religion side of the Intelligence Squared debate - is the idea that atheism is an elite state, a superior order of being, a plane of enlightenment denied to thickoes.|accessdate=10 March 2011}}</ref>
Moore also interpreted Dawkins as promoting the idea that atheism is "a superior order of being".<ref name="Moore">
{{cite book|author=[[Charles Moore (journalist)|Charles Moore]]|title=Militant atheists: too clever for their own good|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3638990/Militant-atheists-too-clever-for-their-own-good.html|quote=It is no exaggeration to describe the movement popularized by the likes of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennet, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens as a new and particularly zealous form of fundamentalism— an atheist fundamentalism.|publisher=[[The Telegraph]]|quote=I feel that atheism may be acquiring precisely those characteristics that atheists so dislike about religion - intolerance, dogmatism, righteousness, moral contempt for one's opponents. Dawkins also tells us that "there are very few atheists in prison". He suggests that "atheism is correlated with higher education, intelligence or reflectiveness, which might counteract criminal impulses". Dawkins also tells us that "there are very few atheists in prison". He suggests that "atheism is correlated with higher education, intelligence or reflectiveness, which might counteract criminal impulses". What begins to emerge - and it lurked strongly behind the anti-religion side of the Intelligence Squared debate - is the idea that atheism is an elite state, a superior order of being, a plane of enlightenment denied to thickoes.|accessdate=10 March 2011}}</ref>
In the same newspaper, [[Raj Persaud]] categorised [[Richard Dawkins]] as a militant atheist, and said he was "famously virulent views on religion, attacking it as a 'virus of the mind' and an 'infantile regression'."<ref name="Persaud">
{{cite book|author=[[Raj Persaud]]|title=Holy visions elude scientists|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/3306312/Holy-visions-elude-scientists.html|quote=So the BBC Science series Horizon took up the challenge by putting his hat to the ultimate test: could he get arch-sceptic and militant atheist Prof Richard Dawkins to start believing in God by electrically massaging his temporal lobes? Prof Dawkins, author of A Devil's Chaplain, was the ideal candidate for the latest test of whether science can now explain away religion, given his famously virulent views on religion, attacking it as a "virus of the mind" and an "infantile regression".|accessdate=10 March 2011}}</ref>

The editor of ''[[Quadrant (magazine)|Quadrant Magazine]]'', a [[literary magazine|literary and cultural journal]], also refers to Dawkins in these terms, and suggests that Dawkins' views are an extreme example of [[intolerance]].<ref>[http://quadrant.org.au/php/article_view.php?article_id=3276 Science versus Religion. Quadrant Magazine February 2007]</ref>
Journalist RJ Eskow, in ''[[The Huffington Post]]'' refers to Richard Dawkins and [[Sam Harris (author)|Sam Harris]] as fundamentalist atheists, saying "I believe most atheists are progressive, enlightened people who are simply 'nonbelievers.' My quarrel is only with those who advocate the elimination of ''religion based on grandiose and unsubstantiated claims''."<ref name="Eskow">
{{cite book|author=RJ Eskow|title=15 Questions Militant Atheists Should Ask Before Trying to "Destroy Religion"|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/15-questions-militant-ath_1_b_37954.html|quote=I've been asked why I write about those I call "fundamentalist atheists," given that they are few in number and far less politically powerful than Christian fundamentalists. And I'll say it once again: I believe most atheists are progressive, enlightened people who are simply "nonbelievers." My quarrel is only with those who advocate the elimination of religion based on grandiose and unsubstantiated claims. If Dawkins, Harris, and the other militants were intellectually honest, they would have to acknowledge that their movement is based on hypothesis, not fact.|accessdate=10 March 2011}}</ref>

British writer [[Theo Hobson]] in ''[[The Guardian]]'' claims that "criticisms levelled at religion by militant atheists are often crude and short-sighted".<ref name="Hobson">
{{cite book|author=[[Theo Hobson]]|title=Atheism is pretentious and cowardly|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/jun/06/atheismispretentiousandcow|quote=God knocking is on the increase but the criticisms levelled at religion by militant atheists are often crude and short-sighted.|accessdate=10 March 2011}}</ref>
Dawkins has responded to criticisms that he is hostile towards religion, saying "such hostility as I or other atheists occasionally voice toward religion is limited to words" and "It is all too easy to confuse fundamentalism with passion. I may well appear passionate when I defend evolution against a fundamentalist creationist, but this is not because of a rival fundamentalism of my own."<ref>http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Secular-Philosophies/Why-I-Am-Hostile-Toward-Religion.aspx</ref>

==Criticism==
===General===
[[Melanie Phillips]], a British author, suggests that militant atheism "in junking religion, has destroyed our sense of anything beyond our material selves and the here and now" and "paved the way for the onslaught on bedrock moral values ... and intimidation and bullying to drive this agenda into public policy".<ref name="Phillips">{{Cite web|url=http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/2447021/the-culture-war-for-the-white-house.thtml|author=[[Melanie Phillips]]|title=The culture war for the White House|publisher=[[The Spectator]]|quote=I see this financial breakdown, moreover, as being not merely a moral crisis but the monetary expression of the broader degradation of our values – the erosion of duty and responsibility to others in favour of instant gratification, unlimited demands repackaged as ‘rights’ and the loss of self-discipline. And the root cause of that erosion is ‘militant atheism’ which, in junking religion, has destroyed our sense of anything beyond our material selves and the here and now and, through such hyper-individualism, paved the way for the onslaught on bedrock moral values expressed through such things as family breakdown and mass fatherlessness, educational collapse, widespread incivility, unprecedented levels of near psychopathic violent crime, epidemic drunkenness and drug abuse, the repudiation of all authority, the moral inversion of victim culture, the destruction of truth and objectivity and a corresponding rise in credulousness in the face of lies and propaganda -- and intimidation and bullying to drive this agenda into public policy.|date=16 October 2008|accessdate=2007-12-31}}</ref>

[[Simon Blackburn]] writes that "many professional philosophers, including ones such as myself who have no religious beliefs at all, are slightly embarrassed, or even annoyed, by the voluble disputes between militant atheists and [[Christian apologetics|religious apologists]]".<ref name="Blackburn">{{Cite web|url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=405647|author=[[Simon Blackburn]]|title=Divine Irony|publisher=[[Times Higher Education (THE)]]|quote=I suspect that many professional philosophers, including ones such as myself who have no religious beliefs at all, are slightly embarrassed, or even annoyed, by the voluble disputes between militant atheists and religious apologists... The annoyance comes partly because of the strong sense of deja vu. But it is not just that old tunes are being replayed, but that they are being replayed badly. The classic performance was given by David Hume in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion|date=5 March 2009|accessdate=2007-12-31}}</ref> Though he presents no specific criticism of militant atheism,<!-- section title is Criticism (of Militant atheism). Blackburn does not criticize either side, he merely SUGGESTS that he is annoyed by both sides. Onus is on those wanting to include this paragraph to present what Blackburn's criticism is of militant atheism.--> for him, both sides of the debate were presented better by David Hume in his ''Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion'', which he then explicates.<ref name="Blackburn"/>

[[Decca Aitkenhead]] writes that the atheist movement has been accused of "adopting a tone so [[militant]] as to alienate potential supporters, and fortify the religious [[Lobbying|lobby]]."<ref name=Lobby>{{cite web|author=[[Decca Aitkenhead]]|title=AC Grayling: 'How can you be a militant atheist? It's like sleeping furiously'|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/03/grayling-good-book-atheism-philosophy|quote=Even if this is true, however, the atheist movement has been accused of shooting itself in the foot by adopting a tone so militant as to alienate potential supporters, and fortify the religious lobby.|publisher=[[The Guardian]]|date=3 April 2011 21.00 BST|accessdate=2011-06-28}}</ref>

===Humanism===
[[Paul Kurtz]], considered by many to be the founder of secular [[humanism]],<ref name="Humanism">{{cite book
|url=http://www.pointofinquiry.org/paul_kurtz_the_new_atheism_and_secular_humanism/
|title=The New Atheism and Secular Humanism|publisher=Center for Inquiry|quote=Paul Kurtz, considered by many the father of the secular humanist movement, is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
|date=19 October 2009}}</ref> has criticized militant atheists in that "they resist any effort to engage in inquiry or debate" and militant atheism as "becom[ing] mere [[dogma]]."<ref name="KurtzCriticism">{{cite book
|author=Paul Kurtz, Vern L. Bullough, Tim Madigan|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=e9OJSW5dkM8C&pg=PA250&dq=militant+atheist+deaths&hl=en&ei=Sqb3TfnGAebX0QGHqJ3gDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q&f=false
|title=Toward a New Enlightenment: the Philosophy of Paul Kurtz
|publisher=Transaction Books
|quote=Ranged against the true believer are the militant atheists, who adamantly reject the faith as false stupid, and reactionary. They consider all religious believers to be gullbile fools and claim that they are given to accepting gross exaggerations and untenable premises. Historic religious claims, they think, are totally implausbile, unbelievable, disreputable, and controvertible, for they go beyond the bounds of reason. Militant atheists can find no value at all to any religious beliefs or institutions. They resist any effort to engage in inquiry or debate. Madalyn Murray O'Hair is as arrogant in her rejection of religion as is the true believer in his or her profession of faith. This form of atheism thus becomes mere dogma.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref> Kurtz has criticized the militant atheism of the Soviet Union, which he stated "persecuted religious beleivers, confiscated church properties, executed or exiled tens of thousands of clerics, and prohibited believers to engage in religious instruction or publish religious materials" and praised [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]'s "dismantling such policies by permitting greater freedom of religious conscience...moving from militant atheism to tolerant humanism."<ref name="Tolerance">{{cite book|author=Paul Kurtz, Vern L. Bullough, Tim Madigan|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=e9OJSW5dkM8C&pg=PA250&dq=militant+atheist+deaths&hl=en&ei=Sqb3TfnGAebX0QGHqJ3gDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Toward a New Enlightenment: the Philosophy of Paul Kurtz|publisher=Transaction Books|quote=In the past, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union waged unremmitting warfare against religion. It persecute religious beleivers, confiscated church properties, executed or exiled tens of thousands of clerics, and prohibited believers to engage in religious instruction or publish religious materials. It has also carried on militant pro-atheist propaganda campaigns as part of the official ideology of the state, in an effort to establish a "new Soviet man" commited to the ideals of Communist society. Mikhail Gorbachev is dismantling such policies by permitting greater freedom of religious conscience. If his reforms proceed unabated, they could have dramatic implications for the entire Communist world, for the Russians may be moving from militant atheism to tolerant humanism.|date=19 October 2009}}</ref> Kurtz cited the commitment to "human freedom and democracy" as [[humanism|humanism's]] basic difference from the militant atheism of the Soviet Union, which consistently violated basic [[human rights]].<ref name="Rights">{{cite book|author=Paul Kurtz, Vern L. Bullough, Tim Madigan|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=e9OJSW5dkM8C&pg=PA250&dq=militant+atheist+deaths&hl=en&ei=Sqb3TfnGAebX0QGHqJ3gDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Toward a New Enlightenment: the Philosophy of Paul Kurtz|publisher=Transaction Books|quote=There have been fundamental and irreconcilable differences between humanists and atheists, particularly Marxist-Leninists. The defining characteristic of humanism is its commitment to human freedom and democracy; the kind of atheism practiced in the Soviet Union has consistently violated basic human rights. Humanists believe first and foremost in the freedom of conscience, the free mind, and the right of dissent. The defense of religious liberty is as precious to the humanist as are the rights of the believers.
|date=19 October 2009}}</ref> Kurtz also stated that the "defense of religious liberty is as precious to the humanist as are the rights of the believers."<ref name="Rights"/>

==Criticism of the term==
[[Catherine Fahringer]] of the [[Freedom From Religion Foundation]] suggested that the label ''militant'' was often routinely applied to ''atheist'' for no good reason – "very much as was the adjective 'damn' attached to the noun 'Yankee' during the Civil War."<ref>Catherine Fahringer, [http://ffrf.org/fttoday/1997/october97/fahringer.html The militant atheist], ''Freethought Today'', October 1997.</ref> The linguist [[Larry Trask]] suggests that the word ''militant'' "is used all too freely in the feebler sense of 'holding or expressing views which are unpopular or which I don't like'." He notes that Richard Dawkins is "accused by tabloid newspapers and other commentators of being a 'militant atheist'", for saying he doesn't like religion. However, according to Trask, activity engaged in by some Christians, such as knocking on strangers' doors "demanding to talk about the Bible", never seems to "draw forth the label 'militant'."<ref>"Militant", in Trask, R.L. (2001). ''Mind the gaffe: the Penguin guide to common errors in English.'' London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-051476-7, pp. 186–187.</ref>

[[AC Grayling]] writes that the charges of militant atheism and atheist fundamentalism are pronounced by [[theists]]; he states that "when the boot was on their foot they [[Death by burning|burned us at the stake]]. All we're doing is speaking very frankly and bluntly and they don't like it."<ref name=Grayling>{{cite web|author=Decca Aitkenhead|title=AC Grayling: 'How can you be a militant atheist? It's like sleeping furiously'|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/03/grayling-good-book-atheism-philosophy|quote=Well, firstly, I think the charges of militancy and fundamentalism of course come from our opponents, the theists. My rejoinder is to say when the boot was on their foot they burned us at the stake. All we're doing is speaking very frankly and bluntly and they don't like it," he laughs.|publisher=[[The Guardian]]|date=3 April 2011 21.00 BST|accessdate=2011-06-28}}</ref> Grayling also likens the appellation 'militant atheist' to that of 'militant non-stamp collector.'<ref name=Grayling>{{cite web|author=[[Decca Aitkenhead]]|title=AC Grayling: 'How can you be a militant atheist? It's like sleeping furiously'|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/03/grayling-good-book-atheism-philosophy|quote=Well, firstly, I think the charges of militancy and fundamentalism of course come from our opponents, the theists. My rejoinder is to say when the boot was on their foot they burned us at the stake. All we're doing is speaking very frankly and bluntly and they don't like it," he laughs.|publisher=[[The Guardian]]|date=3 April 2011 21.00 BST|accessdate=2011-06-28}}</ref> All we're doing is speaking very frankly and bluntly and they don't like it."<ref name=Stamps>{{cite web|author=[[Decca Aitkenhead]]|title=AC Grayling: 'How can you be a militant atheist? It's like sleeping furiously'|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/03/grayling-good-book-atheism-philosophy|quote="And besides, really," he adds with a withering little laugh, "how can you be a militant atheist? How can you be militant non-stamp collector? This is really what it comes down to. You just don't collect stamps. So how can you be a fundamentalist non-stamp collector?|publisher=[[The Guardian]]|date=3 April 2011 21.00 BST|accessdate=2011-06-28}}</ref> [[Oliver Burkeman]] has suggested that it is not the case that Grayling is motivated by nothing but a dispassionate quest for the truth; rather he is actively promoting a position, motivated by more than the mere belief that there isn’t a god.<ref name=Burkeman>{{cite web|author=[[Oliver Burkeman]]|title=On “militant atheists”|url=http://www.oliverburkeman.com/2011/04/on-militant-atheists/|quote=Grayling’s argument is a close cousin of another one that’s annoyingly common in the otherwise sensible atheist/rationalist/skeptic/anti-pseudoscience movements: the implication that if you’re arguing from a position of scientific rationalism, you must be motivated by nothing but a dispassionate quest for the truth...What distinguishes the two sides isn’t that the rationalist one is dispassionate, but that it happens to be right. If you go around promoting your position that it’s best for people not to believe in gods, via public speaking or books or vigorous debates down the pub, you are a) actively promoting a position and b) doing so for some inner psychological reason other than the mere fact that there isn’t a god. You have an ulterior motive. That’s not a criticism: everyone always does. But you’re not just not collecting stamps.|date=5 April 2011|accessdate=12 July 2011}}</ref> He argues that Grayling is doing more than "just not collecting stamps."<ref name=Burkeman>{{cite web|author=[[Oliver Burkeman]]|title=On “militant atheists”|url=http://www.oliverburkeman.com/2011/04/on-militant-atheists/|quote=Grayling’s argument is a close cousin of another one that’s annoyingly common in the otherwise sensible atheist/rationalist/skeptic/anti-pseudoscience movements: the implication that if you’re arguing from a position of scientific rationalism, you must be motivated by nothing but a dispassionate quest for the truth...What distinguishes the two sides isn’t that the rationalist one is dispassionate, but that it happens to be right. If you go around promoting your position that it’s best for people not to believe in gods, via public speaking or books or vigorous debates down the pub, you are a) actively promoting a position and b) doing so for some inner psychological reason other than the mere fact that there isn’t a god. You have an ulterior motive. That’s not a criticism: everyone always does. But you’re not just not collecting stamps.|date=5 April 2011|accessdate=12 July 2011}}</ref>

In ''Open Questions: Diverse Thinkers Discuss God, Religion, and Faith'', Luis Rodrigues writes "I'm not quite sure what a militant atheist is. Every atheist I've ever talked to always says the same thing: 'I don't care what other people believe; I just don't want them to force it on me.'"<ref name="Atheist Fundamentalism">{{cite book|last=Rodrigues|first=Luís |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=OsGuZjYzXdAC&pg=PA347&dq=militant+atheism+atheist+fundamentalism&hl=en&ei=OQzLTa65O9Oftwe9vaH_Bw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=when%20we%20talk%20about%20militant&f=false|title=Open Questions: Diverse Thinkers Discuss God, Religion, and Faith|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|quote=When we talk about militant atheists or fundamentalist atheists, I have a problem with those terms because... a militant or fundamentalist atheist simply says. "You can have your beliefs; just keep them private and don't force them on us."|accessdate=2011-06-27}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Atheism}}
*[[Atheist state]]
*[[Soviet anti-religious legislation]]
*[[Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union]]
*[[League of Militant Atheists]]
*[[The Trouble with Atheism]]
*[[Alexander Solzhenitsyn]]

==Notes and references==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_dawkins_on_militant_atheism.html A TED talk by Richard Dawkins on Militant Atheism]
*[http://orthodoxeurope.org/page/9/3.aspx ''Beware of Religion!: a rebirth of Militant Atheism in Moscow''.] by Dmitry Ageev, Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. (Article comments on the destruction by "believers" of allegedly blasphemous artworks at an exhibition in Moscow, and discusses the implications of the exhibition.)
*[http://www.inspiremagazine.org.uk/news.aspx?action=view&id=4167 ''New militant atheists want to "destroy religious faith"''] Professor [[John Lennox]] article on militant atheism after [http://richarddawkins.net/audio/1707-debate-between-richard-dawkins-and-john-lennox|his debates with Professor Richard Dawkins] and [[Christopher Hitchens]].
*[http://www.roca.org/OA/36/36h.htm "Men Have Forgotten God" – The Templeon Address] by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn (translated). This is the speech by Solzhenitsyn at the Guild Hall following his receiving the [[Templeton Prize|Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion]] award in 1983.
*[http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Walter-Rodgers/2011/0616/How-Russians-survived-militant-atheism-to-embrace-God How Russians survived militant atheism to embrace God]

==Further reading==
*''New Myth, New World: From Nietzsche to Stalinism'' by Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press (November 2002) ISBN 978-0271022185

*''Nietzsche and Soviet Culture: Ally and Adversary'' (Cambridge Studies in Russian Literature) various authors edited by Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN 978-0521452816

*''What the God-seekers found in Nietzsche: The Reception of Nietzsches Übermensch by the Philosophers of the Russian Religious Renaissance''. (Studies in Slavic Literature & Poetics) by [[Nel Grillaert]] Publisher: Rodopi (October 22, 2008) ISBN 978-9042024809

*''Stalin's Holy War Religion, Nationalism, and Alliance Politics, 1941–1945'' by [[Steven Merritt Miner]] Copyright 2002 by the University of North Carolina Press ISBN 0-8078-2736-3

*''Nietzsche in Russia Publisher'' by [[Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal]] Princeton Univ Pr ISBN 978-0691102092

*''Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical'' by [[Chris Matthew Sciabarra]] Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press ISBN 0271014415

*''The Returns of History: Russian Nietzscheans After Modernity'' by [[Dragan Kujundzic]] Publisher: State University of New York Press ISBN 978-0791432341

*''A History of Soviet Atheism in Theory, and Practice, and the Believer'', vol 1: A History of Marxist-Leninist Atheism and Soviet Anti-Religious Policies, by [[Dimitry Pospielovsky|Dimitry V. Pospielovsky]]. Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0312381328

*Soviet Antireligious Campaigns and Persecutions (History of Soviet Atheism in Theory and Practice and the Believers, Vol 2),Dimitry Pospielovsky, (November, 1987), [[Palgrave Macmillan]], ISBN 0312009054

*Soviet Studies on the Church and the Believer's Response to Atheism: A History of Soviet Atheism in Theory and Practice and the Believers, Vol 3, Dimitry Pospielovsky, (August, 1988), Palgrave Macmillan, hardcover: ISBN 0312012918, paperback edition: ISBN 0312012926

*''Great Soviet encyclopedia'', ed. A. M. Prokhorov (New York: Macmillan, London: Collier Macmillan, 1974–1983) 31 volumes, three volumes of indexes.

*''The Russian Church and the Soviet State'' by [[John Shelton Curtiss]], 1917–1950 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1953)

*''Storming the Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant Godless'' by [[Daniel Peris]] Cornell University Press 1998 ISBN 9780801434853

*''Sacred causes : the clash of religion and politics from the Great War to the War on Terror'' by [[Michael Burleigh]] Paperback: 576 pages Publisher: Harper Perennial (March 11, 2008) ISBN 978-0060580964

*''Religious and anti-religious thought in Russia'' By [[George Louis Kline]] The Weil Lectures Published in 1968, University Press (Chicago)
*"Godless Communists": Atheism and Society in Soviet Russia 1917–1932. by [[William B. Husband]] DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. 2000. Pp. xviii, 241. $36.00.

*''A History of Russia''. [[Nicholas Riasanovsky|Nicholas V. Riasanovsky]] and [[Mark D. Steinberg]]. 7th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, 800 pages. ISBN 0195153944

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