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Marksistlikust ateismist massilise ebausuni. Mõningaid tähelepanekuid rahvapärase ateismi kohta XXI sajandi alguse Eestis
Full text linkFrom Marxist Atheism to Mass Superstition. Some Observations About Popular Atheism in Estonia at the Beginning of the 21th Century
The article deals with the beliefs of Estonian atheists 20 years after the collapse of the atheistic Soviet Union. The situation is somewhat complex: besides religious-critical national narrative there are three atheistic traditions present in the recent Estonian history – Soviet vulgar atheism, Soviet “scientific atheism” and “new atheism”, which originates mainly from the religious scene of the United States. This raises the question: what are the standing points of Estonian atheists and which of the aforementioned traditions is the most influential? The study is divided into two parts: the first part uses the qualitative method to analyse atheistic internet comments of articles about religion in Estonian newspapers; the latter uses the quantitative method on data of sociological survey “Of Life, Religion and Religious Life”, conducted in 2010 (EUU 2010). Unlike commentaries which show passionate and intolerant struggle against any expression of religion, the sociological survey reveals Estonians’ absolute lack of interest in religion and that includes atheists as well. Therefore, Estonian atheists’ attitude towards religion can be described as tolerance based on total indifference.
Due to the discussed developments Estonian popular atheism does not differ much from average Estonian’s beliefs and can be described as “practical” (no connection with religious institutions) or even “spiritual atheism”. The last description brings to notice the fact that individuals’ self-image does not say much about their actual beliefs and the borderline between belief and unbelief is not explicit, but “porous”
Anti-religious struggle in Estonian SSR in 1957–1990. Main institutions and their activities
Full text linkPeamiselt arhiiviallikatel baseeruv uurimus kirjeldab religioonivastasesse võitlusse kaasatud olulisemate ametkondade tegevust ja institutsionaalset arengut Nõukogude Eestis aastail 1957-1990.
Stalini valitsemise perioodile järgnenud pingelangus tõi endaga kaasa teatava „religioosse renessanssi“, mis alarmeeris mõningaid kõrgemaid parteitegelasi. See ja utoopiline plaan jõuda paarikümne aastaga kommunistliku riigini – mille ühe peamise takistusena nähti „kodanlikke igandeid“, mille hulka kuulus ka religioon – vallandasid 1958. aastal religioonivastase kampaania, mis kestis kuni 1964. aastani. Kampaania käigus karmistati religioonialast seadusandlust ja kutsuti ellu mitmeid uusi religioonivastase võitluse üksusi, mis tegutsesid religioonialaste seaduste kontrollimise ja ateistliku propaganda valdkonnas – seda nii piirkondlikul kui ka ülevabariigilisel tasandil; ateismipropagandiste hakati ette valmistama nii rahvaülikoolides kui parteiharidussüsteemis. Pärast 1964. aastal toimunud muudatusi riigi juhtkonnas leidis riiklikus religioonipoliitikas aset teatud leevenemine, kuid negatiivne suhtumine religiooni jäi kestma nõukogude perioodi lõpuni – muutused selles suhtumises on märgatavad alles aastast 1988.
Uuenenud religioonipoliitika ei toonud endaga kaasa mitte kampaania käigus loodud üksuste likvideerimist, vaid hoopis katseid neid nii efektiivsemalt kui ka varjatumalt tööle rakendada. Tõsi küll, edutult, sest arhiiviallikate põhjal ilmneb, et enamike riiklike organite ja asutuste ning ka parteiüksuste jaoks oli ateistlik võitlus täiesti ebaolulisel kohal. Võttes arvesse tegevuse olematut või puudulikku koordineerimist ning segaseid käsuliine, võib väita, et religioonivastase võitluse süsteem oli võrdlemisi ebaefektiivne ning taandus lõppkokkuvõttes ainult erinevate institutsioonidega seotud ateismientusiastide tegevusele.
Uurimuses leiavad käsitlemist partei propaganda- ja haridussüsteem, usuasjade voliniku aparaat ühes talle allunud ususeadusandluse kontrollkomisjonidega, ühing „Teadus“ ja rahvaülikoolide süsteem – nende omavahelised sidemed, areng ja tegevus.Largely based on archival documents, this study describes the functioning of the institutions involved in anti-religion campaigns and their institutional development in Soviet Estonia in 1957-1990.
The calming that followed the period of Stalin’s rule brought along a certain „religious renaissance“ that alarmed some of the higher Party functionaries. This and the utopic plan to reach the Communist state in a couple of decades – the main obstacles to which were thought to be the „vestiges of bourgeoisie“, including religion – led to an anti-religion campaign in 1958, which lasted until 1964. During this campaign the laws governing religion were hardened and several new units of anti-religion work were formed; these were involved in the control over religious legislation and atheistic propaganda both at the local and republic levels. Propagandists of atheism were trained in People’s Universities and the educational system of the Party. After the changes that occurred in the country’s administration in 1964 the national religion policy softened to a certain extent, although a negative stand towards religion persisted until the end of the Soviet period; changes in this attitude were not noticeable before 1988.
The modified religion policy did not lead to dispersing the units established during the campaign; instead, it was attempted to employ them more effectively and also in a more concealed manner. This was, however, unsuccessful, as archived documents reveal that atheistic propaganda was an utterly insignificant matter for most national institutions and Party units. In view of the inadequate or inexistent coordination and obscure chains of command it can be said that the system of anti-religion fight was relatively ineffective and in reality it relied mostly on the activity of individual atheism enthusiasts working for different institutions.
This thesis covers the system of propaganda and education of the Party, the apparatus of the commissioner of the Council for Religious Affairs and its subsidiary commissions of assistance for observance of the legislation on religion, the „Science“ Society, and the system of People’s Universities, as well as their mutual connections, development and activities
Religioonivastase võitluse korraldusest Nõukogude Eestis. On anti-religious struggle in Soviet Estonia
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"Nature, Ecology, and Religious Responses to Climate Change" : a report on the 21st EASR annual conference, 19-23 August, 2024
No full textAteism kui nõukogude teadus
Full text linkAtheism as a Soviet Science Atko Remmel, UT Faculty of Theology The following questions will be addressesd in the talk: To which extent were Soviet anti-religion practices scientifically grounded? To which extent can one speak about atheism as a scientific discipline? Is it justifiable to regard Soviet science as „atheist“? On the one hand, atheism was a conceptual component of the prevailing ideology, but on the other hand it was a practical device used for enforcing this ideology. The main basis for regarding it as scientific was the dogmatic position that Marxism-Leninism was a scientific theory. Soviet science was therefore automatically considered atheist and atheism scientific, regardless of the scientific methods – or lack thereof – which were used for gathering data. When speaking of the scientific character of scientific atheism, it should be approached as a synthetic discipline which drew together the results of other disciplines with the aim of criticizing religion, its main conclusion being that religion was incompatible with Marxist ideology and natural sciences. However, when science is exploited for ideological reasons, it is inevitably biased and lacks some of the main attributes of scientific quality, despite its scientific mimicry. Moreover, since the contributions of atheists to the findings of natural sciences were mainly of ideological nature, the discipline attained an apologetic role and it can be considered a quasi-scientific rather than a scientific discipline. In Estonia the community of scientific atheists consisted barely of a handful of people who were mostly occupied at different establishments for higher education. „Estonian scientific atheism“ can be distinguished from Soviet scientific atheism only so far as their writings dealt with the local situation. The main fields of study were the history of religion and sociology; on the practical side the main focus was on the new Soviet rituals.
Religiooniseaduste kontrollimise kaastöökomisjonid Nõukogude Eestis. The commissions of assistance for observance of the legislation on religion in Estonian SSR
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(Mitte)religioossuse kvantitatiivsest uurimisest postkristlikus kultuurimiljöös
Full text linkOn the quantitative study of (non-)religion in the post-Christian cultural landscape
The article discusses Christocentrism in the quantitative sociology of religion. The attention on ideal congregation-centered Christianity falls short in describing contemporary Estonian society since the share of people whom this focus would describe is increasingly marginal, even among Christians. This argument is supported by the analysis of the most interesting part of the EUU 2020 database, the qualitative explanations of picking certain identity labels and justifying attitudes towards different religious traditions. On the basis of the findings, it can be argued that when measuring „religion”, Christians are a relatively isolated group and that much of the descriptive statistics that, on superficial examination, seem to prove the still important position ofChristianity in society, in fact, do not do so. Therefore, in the post-Christian cultural context, the focus solely on „religion” alone is not justified as the aspects of the existential sphere and interpretations of „religion” outside Christianity are increasingly important in measuring and making sense of the data. The article concludes with a discussion on the possible focus of future EUU studies
Religiooni uurimisest ilmalikus ühiskonnas
Full text linkOn Studying Religion in Secular Society
The article critically analyzes “vicarious Christianity”, Lea Altnurme’s adaption of Grace Davie’s “vicarious religion” for Estonian context. The article uses data from recent qualitative fieldwork to argue that descriptive statistics, the idea “vicarious Christianity” is based on, is mostly statistical noise. While agreeing that one can find attitudes similar to Davie’s “vicarious religion”, the article argues that the methods for studying religion in a predominantly secular society, in the backdrop of changing religious landscape, should move towards asking open questions and analysing qualitative data. Relying on methods directed towards studying only institutional religion is not sufficient
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