Stalin was a great leader, even though no single individual in history has
been responsible for killing as many Russian people.
Perhaps it is forgivable—one of the key traits of religion is that the
prevalence of reality (or if you like, “evil”) rarely disturbs the description of
“all powerful and all-knowing” that is bestowed upon their God or Allah or
whatever. Did you defeat your addiction to alcohol or drugs? God or Allah
helped you do that. Why are children still starving to death in Somalia and
Sudan? Its God's or Allah's plan to “test the faith” of their parents. Jesus or
the Mahdi is going to come to put an end to all of that because Satan and
disbelief is responsible for all of that. A perpetual, irrational hope via the
suspension of reality is offered for the lack of answers. In most cases,
human beings have taken it. Nobody asks why beating the addiction woes of
a handful of people was deemed more important for the deity or savior or
leader than the life-and-death struggle of millions of emaciated children.
So—a bumper crop or high industrial yield achieved by farmers or workers?
Credit to Stalin! Police picks me up in the middle of the night to be taken to
be starved and worked to death—Stalin can't have known. Stalin still loves
me.
Mao and the Emperor's Cult
China is one of the rare nations to be spared the scourge of Abrahamic
religion, so perhaps the atheist argument is finally dented in the case of
Mao? Yes, there was no deep-rooted superstition about a “Holy Trinity” to
take advantage of. In fact, it was much simpler—Mao could have it all, with
the Cult of the Emperor.
Since the days of the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huangdi, the monarch
has been considered the “Son of Heaven.” The Forbidden City of the Imperial
Palace is more than just a palace or city. It was planned and placed in such
a way as to serve as the portal connecting the Emperor on Earth to Heaven.
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