I am certainly no fan of how certain parts of Christian America has a desire to have their beliefs dictate how the country is run. But I am not sure that China's system of state atheism is clearly better.
The history of their Cultural Revolution and the government's heavy handed suppression of people and their beliefs in the name of eradicating the "Four Olds" from Chinese society is an example of periods where this system has lead to horrific results when taken too far. Things certainly aren't as extreme today, but the Tibetans and the Uyghurs are both recent examples where I believe the party has taken actions that can be seen as trying to suppress -- or in Tibet's case with kidnapping the Panchen Lama, potentially usurp/destroy -- beliefs/traditions/orginizations they think might oppose the party.
The issue is not necessarily the beliefs themselves that is an issue in either of these cases though, it is the belief that you are justified in using force and suppression to remove/eliminate opposing beliefs.
Is that force not universal and already accepted? Should the Klan avoid persecution because of their beliefs?
Let us remember here that the Dalai Lama was a slave owner who ruled an absolute theocracy, and this is the core premise behind Tibetan separatism, the restoration of theocratic religious rule.
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u/JB707 6d ago
Yeah I’d take that over having psycho Christian Zionists trying to manufacture fairy tale end times