Communism and religion have always been at odds with each other. Communism is a system of government where the government has complete control of the people’s daily lives, whether it is shopping for groceries or watching television, most things have to go through the government. Communism has always tried to silence religious beliefs. The communist belief was founded by Karl Marx, who believed that religion gave people false hope for the future and the country. Karl Marx is also quoted as saying “The first requisite for happiness of people is the abolition of religion.” If a government controls religion, or lack thereof, then they can in turn control what the nation believes.

This comes to light in propaganda especially, such as Yuri Gagirin, the famous Russian cosmonaut. Yuri Gagirin was the man involved in the first manned flight to space. The USSR was a notorious communist society, and a huge proponent in the silencing of religion. A quote that is often attributed to Gagarin was “I flew into space, but didn’t see God.” This quote has been and continues to circulate around communist believers and nations, as a silencer of religion.

The book mentions China’s invasion of its neighboring country Tibet, and it instilling communism upon the country. China is another notorious communist nation. After invading in the 1950s, they killed thousands of Buddhists and forced over 100,000 people, including the religious leader, the Dalai Lama, to leave in exile. Tibet has the highest amount of practicing Buddhists in the world per capita, and many Buddhists live in exile today, because of China. China continues today to be very anti religion, seeing how religion can be a beacon of hope and prosperity to some people. China today has more rights for religions groups, but in the 1950s when they invaded Tibet and prior, they were very anti-religion.

Another anti-religious country is North Korea. North Korea says they are a democratic society, but in reality they are ruled by a mad dictator, and hold many communist values. Christians and other religious groups are routinely hunted down and executed in the country, and the citizens are brainwashed by the government regime. The government realizes that if they continue to silence religion and the feeling of prosperity, the citizens do not know what there is to look forward to in neighboring countries. If the citizens do not know how much better it could possibly be, then they have no reason to rebel against the government.

Sources:http://www.pravmir.com/did-yuri-gagarin-say-he-didnt-see-god-in-space/ (Links to an external site.)

https://imgarcade.com/karl-marx-quotes-on-communism.html (Links to an external site.)

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