[Marxism] The Moslem World, and Karl Marx

["Jurriaan Bendien" <andromeda246@xxxxxxxxx>]

 Joaquín writes:

In the passage, Marx takes atheism *for granted*; and responds to those who
say it is necessary to wage a struggle for atheist ideas by saying it is
necessary to wage a struggle against a society that requires people to
invent God in order to try to come to grips with what it does. Hence,
"Calling for the abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of
the people amounts to demanding people's real happiness. To call on people
to abandon their illusions about their condition is to call on them to
abandon a condition that requires illusions."

Reply:

If you argue, as Marx does, that "the supreme being for human beings is
humanity itself" then this implies a rejection of theistic belief. To that
extent you must be right. But I've never found any text in which Marx
directly and explicitly argues for an atheist position, or in which he
actively and explicitly aims to promulgate atheism. I think, as you suggest,
his concern is with the social conditions which generate supernatural
explanations for human affairs.

Similarly, Lenin argues: "Religion must be declared a private affair. In
these words socialists usually express their attitude towards religion.
(...) So far as the party of the socialist proletariat is concerned,
religion is not a private affair. (...) If that is so, why do we not declare
in our Programme that we are atheists? Why do we not forbid Christians and
other believers in God to join our Party? (...)  No number of pamphlets and
no amount of preaching can enlighten the proletariat, if it is not
enlightened by its own struggle against the dark forces of capitalism.
Unity in this really revolutionary struggle of the oppressed class for the
creation of a paradise on earth is more important to us than unity of
proletarian opinion on paradise in heaven. That is the reason why we do not
and should not set forth our atheism in our Programme; that is why we do not
and should not prohibit proletarians who still retain vestiges of their old
prejudices from associating themselves with our Party."
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1905/dec/03.htm

In the insurrection of October 1917, Lenin did endorse the seizure of church
property assets, but I'm not aware that he advocated actively repressing
religious belief, burning down churches, or harassing religious believers on
account of their faith. That is something that occurred later. The collapse
of the Soviet Union after 1989 was actually followed by a resurgence of
religion, ample proof that the Stalinist effort to eradicate religion was
not effective, and that official claims that alienation no longer existed in
the Soviet Union were false.

Personally I think Marx's own critique of religion and spiritual concerns,
although reasonable nuanced, is very incomplete. It is based mainly on
Feuerbach's "projection theory" of religion, but that theory is not really
adequate to explain the varieties of religious experience. Similarly
Marxists often ridicule spiritual concerns, without really knowing what they
are talking about, thereby ignoring a vital dimension of human existence. If
Marx says, "work for humanity", this is also a spiritual belief, be it a
non-theistic one.

Jurriaan





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