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Originally Posted by Flash Walken
Saying North Korea purged all religions isn't quite accurate.They very much did replace active religious practices with what another poster mentioned above, a Cult of Personality. Kim Il Song is still technically President, and will be in perpetuity. Kim Jong Il, his son, is technically only the leader of the military. It is messed up, but not exactly the first leader to Deify him/herself.
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But you have to ask yourself, does the government in place believe in what they're propogating to their own people, or is a tool that is ruthlessly and cynically applied by the government to formulate policy?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
To a certain extent you would expect these results. Organized religion is often harsh and uncompromising. Basic tenets are 'do what has to be done.'
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But you can apply that argument to any political body, especially the ruthless totalitarian ones. To a political body the ends certainly justify the means and you'll even see that in moderate or even non religious states.
You also have to ask yourself the question of how many of the governments in place actually believe. Hussein projected his government as one that believed and followed the tenants of Islam to placate his people. But he was certainly jealous of the power that religion held in his country and was contemptfull of it behind the scenes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
What I think is more shocking is the 42 percent of otherwise irreligious people who are in step. I think the age of those surveyed has a great influence on that, though. I am pretty confident the results would be different if you surveyed the students and their faculty, for example.
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Young people are probably more steadfast in their beliefs then older ones who have life experiences beyond what they've pulled off of the web or a textbook.
I'm probably sure that if you went to an elderly church group, or one just populated by woman, or one just populated by men that the results would be completely different no matter what the religion or lack of religion was.
All this is saying is that that specific group bought back these numbers on this question. Its a farce to condemn an entire group on the opinions of a tiny sliver of it.