2012-04-12T00:25:32Z

Conservatron: /* Politics */

[[Image:Paterson.jpg|thumb|[[David A. Paterson]] = the first black governor of New York)]]

'''African American''' is a [[politically correct]] term some use to describe the ethnic background of Americans with [[Africa]]n ancestry. The great majority of African Americans are descended from Africans brought to North America as [[slavery|slaves]] beginning four centuries ago. Others (like [[Colin Powell]]) were twentieth century immigrants from the [[West Indies]] or Africa. Many American [[conservative]]s believe that the use of terms such as "African-American" or "Mexican-American," collectively referred to as "[[hyphenated American|hyphenated Americanism]]," make the mistake of "putting America second" and emphasize racial differences over common national identity <ref>http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/on_becoming_an_unhyphenated_am.html</ref>

==Terms==
The preferred terminology changes constantly. Currently "black" and "African American" are in favor, and "Afro-American" and "Negro" are out of favor. The situation before 1960 was just the reverse. "Colored" was popular until the 1950s, but now is generally out of favor except among some [[leftist]] groups.

==History==
see [[Black history]]

Blacks were originally brought to America to serve as slaves in southeastern states on large-scale plantations. During the [[Civil War]], all slaves were freed by [[Abraham Lincoln]] though the [[Emancipation Proclamation]], the [[Thirteenth Amendment]], and some state actions. During [[Reconstruction]] the Freedmen (freed slaves) gained citizenship and civil and political rights, including the right to marry, move about, and keep their wages.

The system of [[Sharecropper|sharecropping]] instituted after the end of the war left most Freedmen poor, while the [[Jim Crow]] policies of racial [[segregation]] that were implemented after the end of [[Reconstruction]] limited their civic and political rights.

Blacks left the rural south in two waves, the first around 1915-20, the second coming after [[World War II]] when machinery ended the need for large numbers of people to pick cotton by hand. The migrants headed to the large cities of the North and West, and also in the South, moving from very poorly paid farm work to wage labor.

==Politics==
Blacks tended to support the [[Republican Party]] from the 1860s to the 1960s, but few who lived in the South voted. The [[New Deal]] provided large-scale relief for blacks during the [[Great Depression]]. Some black Republican organizations, as in Chicago, switched overnight to the [[Democrat]]s. This sudden change is often attributed to the leftist sentiments that were growing in the late twentieth century. The [[Voting Rights Act]] of 1965 allowed blacks to vote in the South, and has been vigorously enforced. Since 1964 blacks have voted 85% to 95% for Democratic presidential candidates, with an occasional black Republican elected to state office.

==Religion==
[[Image:President Barack Obama.jpg|thumb|150px|Barack Obama, the first President with black ancestry]]

Among African-Americans, religiosity is very high, and the standard practice since [[Reconstruction]] is for black ministers to be community spokespersons, and political power brokers; they often run for office. The great majority of African Americans are [[Protestant]]s, with their own [[Baptist]], [[Pentecostal]], and [[Methodist]] churches. A few are [[Muslim]]s.<ref>The Pluralism Project at Harvard University[http://www.pluralism.org/resources/statistics/tradition.php#Islam] Twenty-four percent of American Muslims are black, according to American Muslim Council's Zogby poll of August 2000.</ref>

==References==
<references/>
* [http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html National Survey of Religious Identification (NSRI)]

==See also==
* [[Black History]]
* [[Civil Rights]]
* [[Jim Crow]]
* [[Race]]
* [[Black Republican]]

[[category:Ethnicities]]
[[category:The South]]
[[category:Civil Rights]]
[[category:Black History]]

History of Atheism

2012-04-12T00:19:02Z

Conservatron: Added "Atheism and religion" section.

[[Image:Stalin-140508 27880t.jpg|right|250px|thumb|The brutal proponent of atheism [[Joseph Stalin]] of the Soviet Union. Professor R. J. Rummel is the scholar who first coined the term democide (death by government). Rummel's mid estimate is that communism under Stalin, Mao and other dictators caused the death of approximately 110 million people between 1917 and 1987.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref> ]]
The '''history of atheism''', depending on how one defines the term, can be dated to as early as the 6th century BC, or as recently as the late 18th century AD. The word ''[[atheism]]'' itself was not coined until the 16th century.<ref>http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atheism</ref>

The earliest possible examples of atheism involve Eastern religions such as [[Jainism]], [[Buddhism]] and [[Taoism]], which do not include a deity. These date back to the 6th century BC, but there is some dispute over whether these religions can be classified as atheistic, in the sense of denying the existence of gods, as many other branches of these religions do incorporate deity worship. In some such religions, the question of the existence of gods is considered to be unimportant rather than a question which can be answered one way or the other. This stance can be better described by the neologism ''apatheism''.

Atheism can also be traced to Ancient Greece in the 5th century BC. [[Diagoras of Melos]] is often referred to as "The First Atheist", and other men who claimed to be atheists include Theodorus of Cyrene and Euhemerus. [[Epicurus]] and Lucretius, who are often described as atheists, believed that the gods existed but that they were unconcerned with human affairs: a position better described as [[Deism]] than atheism. [[Protagoras]] espoused a position which we would describe today as [[agnosticism]], stating that "With regard to the gods I am unable to say either that they exist or do not exist."<ref>Cicero, De Natura Deorum</ref> At the time, however, atheism was a capital offense in Greece - it was the crime for which Socrates was executed, though he denied the charge. It is therefore possible that some individuals may have concealed their true beliefs.

In Medieval and Renaissance Europe, instances of atheism are rare. The existence of arguments put forward to demonstrate God's existence by [[St. Thomas Aquinas|Aquinas]], Anselm and others suggests that non-belief was not unheard of, but few records of it are known.

Modern atheism did not begin until the [[Enlightenment]]. In addition, the [[French Revolution]] increased the spread of atheism in [[Europe]].<ref>http://www.investigatingatheism.info/historyeighteenth.html</ref> Baron D'Holbach's book ''The System of Nature'' was the first publication which explicitly denied the existence of God. Other atheists from this time included the philosopher [[David Hume]]. Others denied being atheists (heresy and blasphemy were capital offences) but held materialistic, empiricist, broadly deistic views; these include [[Voltaire]], [[Thomas Hobbes]], [[Thomas Paine]], [[John Locke]], [[Immanuel Kant]] and [[Benjamin Franklin]].
==Militant Atheism and Atheistic Communism==

{{See also|Atheism and mass murder|Atheism and communism}}

The atheism in [[communism|communist]] regimes has been and continues to be [[militant atheism]] and various acts of repression including the razing of thousands of religious buildings and the killing, imprisoning, and oppression of religious leaders and believers.<ref>
*[http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/04/28/china.church.crackdown/index.html?hpt=T2 Underground Christians fear China crackdown]
*[http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0300103220&id=ChRk43tVxTwC&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165&ots=ICIxg28Jud&dq=a+century+of+violence+in+soviet+russia+the+Russian+Orthodox+clergy&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=C9k9Hr7Vn222WCHf_1iSJOHVsgo#v=onepage&q=&f=false A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia]
*[http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/frroman1.aspx On Compromise in the Hierarchy During the Communist Yoke]
*[http://www.nysun.com/article/23082?page_no=1 Korean Reds Targeting Christians]
*[http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/7/120250.shtml North Korean and Chinese Atrocities Against Christians Worsen]
*[http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35818 China sends Bible owners to labor camp]
*[http://theworldnow.wordpress.com/tag/around-the-world/asia/china/ China: Christians Tortured While Under Arrest]</ref>

It has been estimated that in less than the past 100 years, governments under the banner of communism have caused the death of somewhere between 40,472,000 to 259,432,000 human lives.<ref>
*[http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/fcrevb102.html The Black Book of Communism]
*[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm The Black Book of Communism]
*[http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM]
*[http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm]
*[http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365 Memory and Ideology]
*[http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526 The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression]</ref> Dr. R. J. Rummel, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, is the scholar who first coined the term democide (death by government). Dr. R. J. Rummel's mid estimate regarding the loss of life due to communism is that communism caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref>
[[Image:115523-004-FA619CA3.jpg|thumb|right|150px| The perverse and cruel [[atheism|atheist]] [[Marquis de Sade]] advocated induced [[abortion]].<ref>http://jme.bmj.com/content/6/1/7.abstract</ref> ]]

== Atheism and abortion ==

The father of [[medicine]], [[Hippocrates]], expressly prohibited [[abortion]] in his ethical [[Oath]] long before [[Christianity]].

The ''Journal of Medical Ethics'' declared concerning the [[atheism|atheist]] and [[sadism|sadist]] [[Marquis de Sade]], who was imprisoned a number of times before being committed to an insane asylum:
{{cquote|In 1795 the Marquis de Sade published his La Philosophic dans le boudoir, in which he proposed the use of induced abortion for social reasons and as a means of population control. It is from this time that medical and social acceptance of abortion can be dated, although previously the subject had not been discussed in public in modern times. It is suggested that it was largely due to de Sade's writing that induced abortion received the impetus which resulted in its subsequent spread in western society."<ref>http://jme.bmj.com/content/6/1/7.abstract</ref>}}

== Atheism and religion ==

Contrary to the opinions of evangelical atheists, atheism is a religion which has repeatedly attempted to take away the religious liberties of Christians in order to support their false religion.<ref>http://shockawenow.blogspot.com/2011/10/cutting-off-air-supply-of-atheism_573.html</ref> Using unproven theories, Darwinists indoctrinate youths in the United States in high school and college. Although atheists claim that atheism is a religion the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that atheism is a religion as it fits in the definition of how “[a] religion is based on a belief in the existence of God [or] religions founded on different beliefs."<ref>http://factschurch.com/sermons/sermon004.html</ref>

== Schools of atheist thought ==

see: [[Schools of atheist thought]]

==See also==
*[[Resources for leaving atheism and becoming a Christian]]
*[[Christian apologetics|Evidence for Christianity]]
*[[Atheist factions]]
*[[Abortion and atheism]]
* [[Atheism and deception]]
* [[Atheism videos]]
* [[Creation vs. Evolution Videos]]
*[[Atheism and satanic deception]]
*[[Atheism and beliefs]]
*[[Atheism]]
*[[Christianity in Conservapedia]]

==External Links==

*[http://www.firstthings.com/blog/2008/03/14/a-short-history-of-atheism/ A Short History of Atheism]
*[http://www.investigatingatheism.info/history.html History of atheism]

==Recommended Reading==
*Dimitry Pospielovsky, (December, 1987), ''A History of [[Karl Marx|Marxist]]-[[Vladimir Lenin|Leninist]] Atheism and [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] Antireligious Policies'', Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0312381328
*Dimitry Pospielovsky, (November, 1987), ''Soviet Antireligious Campaigns and Persecutions (History of Soviet Atheism in Theory and Practice and the Believers, Vol 2)'', Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0312009054
*Dimitry Pospielovsky, (August, 1988), ''Soviet Studies on the Church and the Believer's Response to Atheism: A History of Soviet Atheism in Theory and Practice and the Believers, Vol 3'', Palgrave Macmillan, hardcover: ISBN 0312012918, paperback: ISBN 0312012926

==References==
<references />

{{Nb Atheism}}

[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:History]]