The Communist Party of China, the nations governing party, says its members must give up religious beliefs and be firm Marxist atheists.

Wang Zuoan, the director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, wrote on Saturday that religious members should give up their faith in order to preserve party unity.

Party members should not have religious beliefs, which is a red line for all members Party members should be firm Marxist atheists, obey Party rules and stick to the Partys faith they are not allowed to seek value and belief in religion.

Wang added that foreign forces use religion to infiltrate China and that extremism has threatened national security and social stability.

Religions should be sinicized We should guide religious groups and individuals with socialist core values and excellent traditional Chinese culture and support religious groups to dig into their doctrines to find parts that are beneficial to social harmony and development.

This isnt just one crazy government official banning religion and requiring Marxist atheism. Zhu Weiqun, chairman of the Ethnic and Religious Committee of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference, said it is important to remind party members not to have religious beliefs.

Some people who claim to be scholars support religious beliefs in the Party, which has undermined the Partys values based on dialectical materialism.

Here we have the opposite of what we typically see, in the Middle East, for example, where religious governments are imposing bans on atheism and even killing non-believers based on blasphemy laws. Yet it is incredibly similar, too.

Party unity may be the official reason for mandating Marxist atheism, but one thing aboutWangs quotestuck out to me above all else. He said party members must stick to the Partys faith. Faith. This is dogmatic thinking run amok exactly the kind of thing critical thinkers ought to oppose, even when its ostensibly working in our favor. Forcing atheism upon people is no better than requiring people to worship Allah.

This ban on religion by the Chinese Communist Party is no different from what we saw in the Soviet Union. The leaders arent destroying faith; theyre replacing God with themselves and demanding loyalty.

Secular governments are no doubt better than theocracies, but banning religion and threatening punishment for believers isnt the answer. Those kinds of thought crimes have never been successful in the long term. If anything, banning religion empowers religious people, even ifthey gather in secret, and creates a justified sense of persecution among believers outside the country. What China is doing isnt just unethical, its irrational. Its dogma in the guise of atheism. And that should never be defended.

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China's Government Bans Religion, Says Members Must Be Firm Marxist Atheists - Patheos (blog)