Koyaanisqatsi

He deified himself and forced all of his citizens to worship him and obey his every command, or face certain punishment, so, no. He was not in practice an atheist.

He was Yahweh, apparently. Or Allah, or Zeus, or any other claim of a supreme ruler that has been made throughout history.

The exact same belief structure that theists claim is "True" is what supported Mao's authority.

:huh:

Koyaanisqatsi

Because he was their god, not Jesus.

Beside the fact that they clearly targeted Jews far more than Christians, the reason they targeted any cult members is because that would be the prevailing cult belief structure in their region (thanks to centuries of persecution and death for non-compliance) that usurped their own worship.

Nice strawman. Stalin, as I have repeatedly pointed out, demanded the exact same thing as Yahweh and Jesus; that his sheep worship only him (with dire consequences for not obeying; just like Yahweh/Jesus/Allah).

It had nothing to do with atheism and everything to do with the exact same structe theism is predicated upon.

Obey Stalin, not Yahweh/Jesus/Allah, or die.

Identical.

:huh:

ziffel

Uh, wiccan, didn't Israel commit mass murder in the name of Yahweh? (over and over, and over again?)

post tenebras lux

Oh, and Pol Pot's regime targetted 'intellectuals' (i.e. people who could read, for example) and anyone who had had contact with foreigners.

So, some cambodian waving a bible around would fail on both counts. But then any cambodian waving a copy of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations would have failed on both counts as well (as well as being guilty of being 'a capitalist pig' no doubt). Likewise for any cambodian caught with a copy of the works of Thoams Paine, Bernard Russell or George Orwell. etc.