THE ANTI-GOD WESTERN PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY PRODUCED THE ANTI-GOD MARXIST MOVEMENT. ROLE OF GERMANY IN THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN RELIGIOUS CRITICISM.Germany is of great importance to the history of atheism and religious criticism. The invention of the Guttenberg printing press made Germany a leader in early social movements of opposition to the Church because of the ability to mass produce and spread literature. This is perhaps why the Protestant Reformation began in Germany. From that time on criticism of religion and Christianity has been deeply rooted in German culture. German philosophy of the 19th century marked the end of the Enlightenment and a move towards the modern era. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) is the first prominent German atheist philosopher. He published and lectured during the time of Hegel. Ludwig von Feuerbach (1804–1872) viewed religion and God as expressions of the hopes of man; that the consciousness of God is nothing else than the consciousness of man. Bruno Bauer (1809-1882) was deeply atheistic and highly critical of Christianity. He was perhaps the first major writer to attack the historical validity of Christianity and Jesus. Karl Marx (1818-1883) is the most famous of the German atheistic philosophers. Marx declared, “philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point however is to change it.” The ultimate goal of economic planning and Communism, therefore, was the abolition of religious belief, and convert the world into a classless communist state. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was extremely anti-Christian and also self-absorbed. He sought to find human values that transcended religion and faith. One of his most well-known statements is “God is Dead”, meaning that the system of values based on belief in an absolute truth is dead. But he believed in absolute truth of materialism and physical reality. Charles Darwin (1809-1882) is the author of the hypothetical theory of evolution based on natural selection. This theory was put forward by Darwin in his most famous book, The Origin of Species, in 1859. It was in a later book however, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), that Darwin made the statement that man was not created by God. Darwin moved gradually from a belief in complete design to a belief in divinely inspired evolution, to outright belief in a purely material process that required no divine creation or intervention. By the time of his death Darwin had declared himself an agnostic.

20^TH CENTURY ANTI-RELIGIOUS COMMUNISM.With the success of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 the Communist movement began with a series of “successes” in backward, oppressed, feudal societies. While Karl Marx intended Communism to take hold in advanced industrialized countries, Communism took power in pre-industrial countries like Russia, China, Korea, Vietnam and Cuba. All of these Communist regimes were officially atheist and were antagonistic towards religion.

VLADIMIR LENIN, SOVIET UNION AND MARXISM.The Soviet Union produced millions of copies of anti-religious books in dozens of different languages that it distributed around the world for free. Lenin was the most prominent member of the Bolshevik Party. Lenin was known for always having an open door to the public and working tirelessly to try to make the grand Soviet experiment work. Lenin wrote volumes of works, and did much to restate and clarify many of Marx’s points. Marx was known for being hard to read, but Lenin made Marx more accessible and condensed his important points into a system of ideology. Lenin created what is known as “Marxism” today. When most people speak of “Marxism” the ideology, they are usually speaking of Marxism-Leninism. Lenin defended and promoted Marxism as a fundamental worldview, based on philosophical materialism, and saw Marxism as the pinnacle of the Enlightenment - as the final product of the process of English, German and French philosophy. The philosophy of Marxism is materialism.

MAO ZEDONG (1893-1976) IN CHINA.In China, the best known proponent of Marxism was Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung), leader of the Chinese communist revolution, whose writings and leadership made Marxist-Leninist political philosophy part of everyday Chinese life. Mao came to power as a guerilla military leader during the Chinese Civil War that waged prior to, during, and after World War II. During World War II the Red Army, under Mao’s leadership, was the most effective fighting force against the Japanese and also the greatest aid to the American military. After the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek, Mao unified China and expelled all foreign powers. Mao was an atheist and promoted the spread of atheism. Some repressions against religion did take place under Mao, but this was never a major focus of the Chinese Communist Party, partly because organized religion was not a major influence in China in the first place. Mao did believe in religious tolerance and did not support the outright banning of religion.

MARXISM WAS THE FINAL PRODUCT OF THE GODLESS WESTERN PHILOSOPHY. ANTI-GOD WESTERN PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY PRODUCED THE ANTI-GOD MARXIST MOVEMENT. The invention of the Guttenberg printing press made Germany a leader in the modern social movements of opposition to the Church because of the ability to mass produce and spread literature. This is perhaps why the Protestant Reformation began in Germany. From that time on criticism of religion and Christianity has been deeply rooted in German culture. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) is the first prominent German atheist philosopher. He published and lectured during the time of Hegel. Ludwig von Feuerbach (1804–1872) viewed religion and God as expressions of the hopes of man; that the consciousness of God is nothing else than the consciousness of man. Bruno Bauer (1809-1882) was deeply atheistic and highly critical of Christianity. He was perhaps the first major writer to attack the historical validity of Christianity and Jesus.

ANTI-RELIGIOUS MARXIST COMMUNIST MOVEMENT WAS THE FINAL COUTCOME OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY. Karl Marx (1818-1883) is the most famous of the German atheistic philosophers. Marx declared, “philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point however is to change it.” The ultimate goal of economic planning and Communism, therefore, was the abolition of religious belief, and convert the world into a classless communist state. With the success of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 the Communist movement began with a series of “successes” in backward, oppressed, feudal societies. While Karl Marx intended Communism to take hold in advanced industrialized countries, Communism took power in pre-industrial countries like Russia, China, Korea, Vietnam and Cuba. All of these Communist regimes were officially atheist and were antagonistic towards religion.