Quote:Though I usually find myself in agreement with BR, in this I do not. I think that a good argument may be made for the premise that all religions are belief systems. I do not think that the converse is true. While communism, as pointed out by BR, shares many characteristics (I almost said 'symptoms') with religion, it lacks the concept of a superior being in who's name all actions are justified. Doesn't make communism any better, just different.In the case of Communism, I would say it's not a personified deity so much as an idealized process of history. All actions by the privileged vanguard towards the eventual goal of a utopian "Communist" society are both inevitable and moral - it's like Calvinism, really.
However, the core of the argument is functional. Communism works as a religion, with its dogma and its sins, its priests and believers. Its concepts may be different, but the practise is the same. And when religion unleashes horrors on the world, it isn't usually because of the high minded theology, but because of its social functioning.
-Jester