joedad

The Vatican trotted out the embalmed corpse of JohnXXIII some years ago. Really freaky shit to see everyone making a fuss, doing the sign of the cross on themselves, lowering their eyes. Definitely cult behavior.

EthnAlln

Marx definitely subscribed to an atheist worldview (dialectical materialism) and thought that religion was obviously false and would disappear as soon as an economically egalitarian society was created. (I actually think he was onto something there; if social anxieties go away, one of the primary sources of religious observance will disappear.) Christian communes have been very short-lived where they've been tried (as in the Book of Acts and the early days of the Puritan colony in Massachusetts).

To return to the former USSR, they were officially a militantly atheist society, with organized anti-religion groups that bullied their way into religious services shouting anti-religious slogans. They forbade parents to teach religion even to their own children, a proscription in force as recently as 20 years ago. Churches were torn down, tens of thousands of priests were arrested, sent to labor camps, and shot. They gave atheists a very bad name, even though most of us abhor what they did and are inclined to think that Marxism itself was a sort of religion, with its inflexible adherence to absurd dogma.

Killa4Luv

Communism is anti-religion, because communism is anti-exploitation and and anti-mystification. The church was a major oppressor/exploiter and apologist for tzarist rule in Russia; as it was an apologist for oppressive rule in other countries. Religion is dangerous and if we are trying to build a world based on justice and equality, ideologies likie religion and racism, neither of which ave any basis in fact, must be fought.

obviously communists got many things wrong themselves, but the truth isn't nearly as bad as capitalist historians would have you believe. And most of what is commonly associated with communism, are really bad decisions by individual leaders, not a part of any serious comunist strategy. the glorification of Lenin and Mao, etc. is the same as religion. Human beings sometimes do great things, but we all are capable of greatness, thats what should have been promoted, not the idea that these guys were jsut the most special people in the world.

Jimmy Higgins

"Thinkable"? To put it plaining, no one has ever been able to show that these "fine tuned" constants could have been any other value. I compare it with a set of dominos. The first one falls... the second one is going to fall. The second domino didn't have any initial motion, however, because of something else, it will fall. The "fine-tuned" constants may never have been at risk to begin with. Their values were set into motion once the big bang happened.

And regardless, if there are so many "thinkable" universes, then perhaps we are then a rare one that does have life.

post tenebras lux

Nor have they ever shown that these are the only 'fine-tuned' constants that can support life. So what if other 'fine-tuned' constants wouldn't support human life, they have to show that they couldn't support ANY form of life.

Seeker2000

I just noticed that there have been further answers in this thread.

Well, with 'thinkable' I mean that we can theorize that the constants could have other values. Of course we don't know, but on the other hand we also don't know why other values shouldn't be possible. We also don't know if there are other universes. Still, I don't think the question of why the constants have the values they have is that absurd. IMHO it's an obvious question to raise.

But as I said: Perhaps a theory of everything in physics might explain the apparent fine tuning or maybe something like a supposed multiverse exists. At the moment we cannot answer these fundamental questions about the universe with certainty.

Regarding non-human life forms: Of course that's also a possibility. We don't know what other forms of life might be possible. We can say though, that with our current knowledge of science it seems most likely that life has to be based on carbon, so that a universe like ours would be necessary.

EthnAlln

Well, Communism in the West did evolve into something more benign than what was in Russia and still is in China. It adapted itself to democratic processes and played by the rules. But it can't get any traction among the populace for fear that, once in power, it would repeat what was done in Russia. At least, that's how I explain its lack of appeal. It is theoretically flawed, but so are the Republican, Democratic, Green, and Libertarian parties, which manage to attract votes and donors.

But I must take issue with your reference to "capitalist historians." There really are no serious "capitalist historians," of Russia in the major universities of the West, ideologically committed to anything like laissez-faire capitalism. The best ones going in the USA are Stephen Cohen and Marshall Goldman, who disagree with each other frequently, but neither of whom has any stake in exaggerating the horrors of Stalinism.

EthnAlln

Well, of course, science for the militant theist is whatever he wants it to be. If he wants to disbelieve in a large, old universe, then the speed of light becomes time-dependent. Never mind that this plays havoc (through Maxwell's equations) with electromagnetism and would rule out the synthesis of helium from hydrogen through (binding energy insufficient to fuse the nuclei if has the wrong value). They pick and choose what they need and refuse to look at its consequences. In short, they aren't scientists.

Magnus Armstrong

Leon Theremin wanted to preserve Lenin in an early form of cryogenics so he could be revived later, but Stalin had already had the brain removed and dissected.

aa5874

Communism is a political system that outlawed the worship of God. At one time, in some Democratic countries, witchcraft was outlawed. Political systems should not be confused with religion. Soceities decide what type of political systems they want either through the ballot or war.

At one time, the Monarchial system was prevalent throughout the world and seem to be a fair political system, however today very few countries use that political system. In Britain, for example, at one time we see the monarchy oppressing and persecuting one religion and then accepting the same when a new monarchy takes over.

History will show that at a certain period, the Christian Church did also persecute other religions, just like Communism.

If a Democratic system becomes so corrupt, that the underlying principles of democracy becomes irrelevant, then that society will rebel and introduce another political system and the same applies to any other political system.

There are atheists in any political system, the reason for this is because there appears to be no Gods. In some political systems, however, some people are forced to deny that certain gods exists and in others people are forced to say certain gods exist. For economical and financial reasons, people generally go 'with the flow' and follow the persuasion of the political system.