The USSR was nominally atheist, but my understanding, based on the testimony of my fencing coach, who grew up in Soviet Russia, is that levels of religious belief were, if not as high as in America, still substantial, and simply practiced in private.
Actually, I said it wasn’t atheist AT ALL. About as atheist as Don Quixote was a knight. Even the atheism was a manifestation of the personality cult of Karl Marx.
Hold on, where did he say that? He said that they were cultish communists, but (as the OP points out), it’s quite possible to be rational about one thing and irrational about another, even though the same strategy would correctly guide you through both issues if you only followed it consistently.
The USSR was nominally atheist, but my understanding, based on the testimony of my fencing coach, who grew up in Soviet Russia, is that levels of religious belief were, if not as high as in America, still substantial, and simply practiced in private.
There was also the issue of communism, which is nothing if not a cult.
So are you trying to say that the USSR wasn’t truly atheist. That sounds like no true scotsman.
Actually, I said it wasn’t atheist AT ALL. About as atheist as Don Quixote was a knight. Even the atheism was a manifestation of the personality cult of Karl Marx.
Hold on, where did he say that? He said that they were cultish communists, but (as the OP points out), it’s quite possible to be rational about one thing and irrational about another, even though the same strategy would correctly guide you through both issues if you only followed it consistently.