Communism and Religion?

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Hi,once again a question occures.

Why can't you have religion in a communist society? The communist manifesto says that "all religions have been a expression of historical stages of devoupment and communism is the stage which makes all exsiting religions superfluous and brings about their dissepearence." However the manifesto doesn't exactly say why or how this occures.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Stephen Colbert]

Communists renounce religion because they see it as a mechanism for control of the masses in order to keep the docile and ruled. Communists seek to create a stateless and classless society, and where there is religion, there is some notion of authority/state.

Communism calls for the radical transformation of all sectors of society, and religious beliefs have historically shown to get in the way due to God's law--which is inherently anti-egalitarian

[NGNM85]

Anarchists, and Communists also have a scientific, materialist perspective of the world that is incompatible with religion.

[StoneFrog]

Anarchists, and Communists also have a scientific, materialist perspective of the world that is incompatible with religion.

Not exactly, it more is incompatible to the religious structures such as the church, but the act of believing in a god has little consequence in communism. There also seems to be a certain level of compatibility with some forms of Buddhism, and other forms of religion which focus not on a worship of a god; instead individual enlightenment.

So i would say communism has a problem more with main stream religions and its repressive structure within it. The structure only keeps the peons distracted and blind.

[PilesOfDeadNazis]

I agree with With no.Mute. It's not the belief, it's the backwards, oppressive and reactionary structure known as the church.

A Communist society has true freedom, so people can believe in whatever deity they wish(or no deity at all, of course), but if organized religion exists, Communist society will not. Organized religion is a tool to dumb people down and create sectarianism on a large scale.

Personal belief in spiritual enlightenment is a completely different story.

However, from a theoretical standpoint, if one was to hold to most theories and beliefs created by modern forms a religion, then it would be contradictory to also hold to the materialist standpoint of Marxism.

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

Hi,once again a question occures.

Why can't you have religion in a communist society? The communist manifesto says that "all religions have been a expression of historical stages of devoupment and communism is the stage which makes all exsiting religions superfluous and brings about their dissepearence." However the manifesto doesn't exactly say why or how this occures.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Religion is subjective to start with. However, A more accurate interpretation of your quote, in my opinion, is that it doesn't say that there will be no religion in communist society, but that religion as we know it now will cease to exist.

Religion as we know it now is, sadly, full of contradictions; it is frequently irrational, zealous, dogmatic, sectarian, and made up of top-down authoritarian, patriarchal institutions. Nevertheless, there are religious groups and individuals who are outside the "norm" and we should reach out to these groups to facilitate a transformation of what it means to be religious. Religion is more about ongoing social dynamics than adherence to say, the Bible.

[ContrarianLemming]

heres an unheard idea: how about live and let live?
really, christians could still exist in anarchy, I know christian communists, christian class war anarchists, this kind of talk spits in there face.

[Bubbles]

Religion emerge to fill a function in a society. And you can view it in many different aspects. One of them is religion as the forefather to science giving answers to questions about life. The other part is viewing it as method of administrating the society and controlling people. The church in Europe owned about half the land under the feudal era being one of the strongest powers. In Sweden we had something called "kung av guds nåde" which means something like the king has God on his side. Funny thing God was on every kings side...

Well anyway, I don't think communism will erase religion, but the modern and ancient base it is built upon.

[Invincible Summer]

heres an unheard idea: how about live and let live?
really, christians could still exist in anarchy, I know christian communists, christian class war anarchists, this kind of talk spits in there face.

They were standing too close.


Really though, assuming a revolutionary scenario, we need all the allies we can get. However, post-revolution, these people better not build any churches or bullshit like that. Strictly in the home.

Post-revolutionary society should also make it taboo to say "Bless you!" when someone sneezes.