Konstantin Volkodav - Religious Implications of Atheism

For example, in the atheistic USSR, belief in God was replaced by belief in science and the dogmas of Marxism-Leninism. Dissenters (even scientists) have been repressed and discriminated against, so an analogy can be drawn with the Inquisition. There was censorship, and a completely religious cult of veneration of the relics of Lenin in the Mausoleum. Church Councils were replaced by Communist Party Congresses. The glory of the CPSU was sent everywhere (instead of the religious glorification of God), etc. etc.

When a religion is transferred to new soil, it inevitably enters into interaction with previous traditional religious ideas, because it is impossible to start from scratch. The new religion is either built into the previous ones, or there is a kind of diffusion, hybridization. That is why in Judaism there was a strict prohibition even on everyday communication with pagans; and Christians from the Jews were very wary of the conversion of pagans, and the Romans looked wary of Christianity, since they saw it as a threat to their state. History shows many examples of hybridization of religions. In Byzantium, there was often a mixture of Neo-Platonism, Hellenic paganism and Christianity, simply veiled under different names, under different masks. In Latin America and Africa, under the guise of Christian saints, they still worship their ethnic spirits, they simply changed their names and external attributes.

In general, it can be said that every person from birth is influenced by upbringing, culture, national characteristics, traditions of their country, the spirit of the era, and other social factors. On the other hand, a person has his own inner “self”; he is a personality, he can mature his own point of view, and he may even dare to challenge the traditional foundations of society. If there are enough such people, a certain critical number, then a social revolution may occur.

The same happens in religions. It is impossible not to notice that social revolutions, or significant transformations in a state, are immediately reflected in religion in this state. [59] . An illustrative example can be the history of the emergence of the Church of England, the transformation in France during the Great French Revolution.

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. John Hogan, Scientific American , December 1, 2014.

. Франк, Смысл жизни , 19. [Hereinafter, everywhere all translations from Russian are made by the author.]

. For more information on qualia, see: Волкодав, Эволюция , 139.

. A translation from Russian to English.

. The video footage of this debate on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSwJuOPG4FI in eight years have been watched by more than forty one million people.

. The Edict of Milan (Lat. Edictum Mediolanense) of 313 proclaimed religious tolerance in the territory of the Roman Empire, and Christianity became legal.

. See Vilenkin, Many Worlds in One , Part IV—Before The Beginning. Chapter 16—Did The Universe Have a Beginning? Beyond Unreasonable Doubt.

. Quoted from: Wetter, A Historical and Systematic Survey , 436.

. Legler wrote that during all periods of Soviet history from the 1920s to the time of writing the book (1985), Soviet science (all its areas, including natural sciences) was under the influence of the state (atheistic) ideology. See Леглер, Научные Революции при Социализме .

. Academician Nikolai Vavilov (1887–1943) died on death row. He was a famous geneticist, vice president of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences. In 1948, all genetic research in the USSR was discontinued. Hundreds of leading professors and instructors have been fired. Biology books based on genetics were seized and destroyed from libraries.

. David Hume (1711–1776) was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748) contains reworking of the main points of the “Treatise”, with the addition of material on free will, miracles, the Design Argument, and mitigated scepticism. Section 10, On Miracles , of the Enquiry, was often published separately.

. Lat. “ex nihilo nihil fit”.

. In 2003, cosmologists Arvin Borde, Alan Guth, and Alexander Vilenkin proved the singularity theorem. It says that the expanding space time does not continue infinitely into the past, but has a beginning, that is, the universe has a beginning. See Borde et al., “Inflationary space-times are not past-complete.”

. “In 1973, I proposed that our Universe had been created spontaneously from nothing (ex nihilo), as a result of the established principles of physics,” Edward P. Tryon (prof. of Physics, New York University), “What Made the World?” 14.

. Климишин, Релятивистская астрономия , 243.

. Зельдович, “Возможно ли образование Вселенной ‘из ничего’?” Природа 4 (1988).

. However, in the Afterword to it, Academician A. D. Sakharov considered it necessary “to point out the great uncertainty in our understanding of the situation. This uncertainty is deeply fundamental, even philosophical. Philosophically acute is, in particular, the question of the so-called anthropic principle, which explains the peculiarities of our universe by the fact that only in such a universe could intelligent life arise, in contrast to an infinite number of other, spontaneously arising ‘dead’ universes.”

. Krauss, A Universe from Nothing , Preface.

. Albert Einstein remarked on this topic, “The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” (Quoted from: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/albert_einstein_110208)

. Krauss, A Universe from Nothing . Ch. 10: Nothing is Unstable, 154.

. Krauss, A Universe from Nothing . Preface, 18.

. Isaac Newton (1642–1727). In Brewster, Memoirs of Newton (1855), vol II, Ch. 27. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/isaac_newton_387031

. Vilenkin, “Creation of Universes from Nothing”, 25–28.

. “That same Munchausen” is a Soviet artistic two-part television movie in 1979. The play “The Most Truthful” by Grigory Izrailevich Gorin served as the literary material for the script. It was written in the play, “A serious face is not yet a sign of intelligence, all stupidity on Earth is done with just such an expression.” However, when dubbing the movie, Yankovsky made a reservation, saying, “A smart face is not yet a sign of intelligence.” In this form, the phrase, despite G. Gorin’s protests, remained in the movie.

. For example, in the order of the Liturgy in the priestly prayer of the Trisagion Singing (“Who from non-being has brought all things into being”), in The Funeral Service—Eulogetaria for the Dead (You who of old did fashion me out of nothingness, and with your Image Divine did honor me), which was written by St. John Damascene, etc.

. John Chrysostom, In Gen . 13. 2; Cyr. Hieros. Catech. 4. 18; Nemes. De nat. hom. 2; Theodoret. Haer. fab. V 9; Hieron. Adv. Rufin. II 10; 5th anathematism of the Council of 561 in Braga—Enchiridion symbolorum. N 455; The fact that everything created was brought into being out of nothingness was written by St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Basil the Great, St. Athanasius the Great.

. St. Basil the Great. Hexameron (Six Days of Creation).

. Endless and limitless sea of essence (Gr. τί πέλαγος ουσίας ἄπειρον καί ἀόριστον). S. Greg. Naz. Or. 38, in Theophan. 7 // PG. XXXVI. P. 317.

. B. Augustini, Conf . XI, 11 // PL. XXXII. P. 813: splendorem semper stantis; aeternitatis cnfr.: De Trinit. V, 1, 2 // PL. XLII. P. 912: sine tempore sempiternum.

. B. Augustini, Conf . XI, 14 // PL. XXXII. P. 816: praesens autem, si semper esset praesens nec in praeteritum transiret, non jam esset tempus, sed aeternitas.

. Gr. “παρ’ ᾧ οὐκ ἔνι παραλλαγὴ ἢ τροπῆς ἀποσκίασμα”.

. Флоровский, “Творение: его начало и конец”, 3.

. A priori—knowledge obtained before experience and independently of it, i. e., knowledge, as it were known in advance.

. Hereinafter, everywhere by “heart” we mean a metaphor meaning a certain spiritual center or spiritual depths of a person. This metaphor is used very often in the Bible. In general, the “heart” in it is often called the center or depth. For example, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40). It is obvious that the Earth does not have a heart (as a physical organ), but has depth.

. For example, Acts. 17:22 “Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way’.” Gr.: «Σταθεὶς δὲ ὁ Παῦλος ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ ᾿Αρείου πάγου ἔφη• ἄνδρες ᾿Αθηναῖοι, κατὰ πάντα ὡς δεισιδαιμονεστέρους ὑμᾶς θεωρῶ».

. Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin and other painters, whose work is now estimated at $100 million per painting, lived in poverty and barely made ends meet. Also, in music, the brilliant Mozart and others geniuses lived in poverty, while the less talented were much better off.

. See Irenaeus of Lyons ( Adversus haereses , III, 10, 2 and in the Prologue of the chapter 5); St. Athanasius of Alexandria (Contra Arianos I, 39). Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian said about the same thing.