Religion
In reply to the discussion: Richard Dawkins to atheist rally: 'Show contempt' for faith [View all]LeftishBrit
(41,205 posts)I think it's unjust and unproductive to do any of these things; however there is one difference here: the Inquisition was a 'Catholic' dictatorship, as the Taliban is an 'Islamic' dictatorship. Soviet Communism was not primarily an atheist dictatorship; it was a political, essentially imperial, dictatorship, where atheism was but one component of the state-sponsored ideology. Thus the Inquisition and the Taliban were direct, if distorted, products of Catholicism and Islam, whereas Soviet Communism was primarily a very distorted product of socialist ideology in an unholy marriage with the cult of personality. The enforcement of atheism was more a result than a cause of state dictatorship.
I think it is actually possible to argue somewhat the same about the Inquisition and the Taliban: that the religions were used to maintain and enforce the dictators' power, rather than being the primary causes. However, the religions were at least on an explicit level a more key part of the state apparatus in the case of the Inquisition and the Taliban, than atheism in the case of the Soviet Union.
In any case, equating all Catholics with the Inquisition, or all Muslims with the Taliban, or all Protestants with Puritan witch-burning, or all atheists with Stalinism, is unjust. The important thing is to have a state which is religion-neutral - neither enforcing atheism nor any religion -and gives equal rights to all.