Re: [Marxism] ForLiberation Newsletter

[brownh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Haines Brown)]

> Debate: the need to believe
> 
> By Jacques Bouveresse
> 
> Rationalists seem to believe that religion should be replaceable by
> something other than a religion. Their proposition has been
> countered by the argument of obligatory, indeed, automatic
> replacement, according to which anything that destroys religion, if
> it is not itself already a religion, is doomed to become one anyway.

> http://www.forliberation.org/site/archive/issue0407/article010407.htm

This is a citation of an interesting article, and I recommend that
people give it a look. However, it is in serious need of criticism
from a progressive viewpoint that goes beyond the world of thought to
engage the real world.

It stuck me as being very superficial in that it did not really
explore the source of our need to believe. I don't wish to initiate a
long and tedious discussion, but let me instead simply offer a
proposition to illustrate what I mean.

1. Humans must have the sense of an alternative future and of their
   capacity to achieve it. This is the basis of our sense of freedom
   and power over circumstance; it is the source of joy in life; it is
   what makes us human.

2. Religion offers an ideal alternative to what exists, and while that
   may offer direction in life and some personal satisfaction, even
   joy, it does not bring with it any significant capacity to actually
   change things. As an essentially static joy that represents a state
   of mind independent of circumstance, it is an empty joy such as
   might be provided by an intoxicant.

3. Any alternative to religion must a) represent a transcendence of
   circumstance, not just in thought, but in terms of real
   possibilities, and b) it also must point to a transcendence by our
   social being (individual and society as aspects of one process),
   rather than just as individuals.

4. Marxism offers a way of seeing things in terms of contradiction. A
   contradiction represents both the potentials for transcending what
   exists and the need for doing so, and our consciousness arises from
   this contradictory reality rather than being external to it. To
   represent the world in thought as consisting of contradictions
   offers an alternative to religion, and to base one's actions on the
   emergence of objective contradictions offers the possibility for
   material change that religion lacks to any significant degree.

Haines Brown

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