RedCommieBear
26th September 2006, 05:33
I guess the next post is just a collection of quotes by different revolutionaries, and their views on religion.
(Note: The following is to the author's best knowledge. Corrections and comments are greatly appreciated)
Revolutionaries on Religion
Marx on Religion - Marx is famous for his atheism. In the communist manifesto, he states:
Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality...
However, it could be said that this line was taken out of context.
When the ancient world was in its last throes, the ancient religions were overcome by Christianity. When Christian ideas succumbed in the 18th century to rationalist ideas, feudal society fought its death battle with the then revolutionary bourgeoisie. The ideas of religious liberty and freedom of conscience merely gave expression to
the sway of free competition within the domain of knowledge.
“Undoubtedly,” it will be said, “religious, moral, philosophical, and juridical ideas have been modified in the course of historical development. But religion, morality, philosophy, political science, and law, constantly survived this change.”“There are, besides, eternal truths, such as
Freedom, Justice, etc., that are common to all states of society. But Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience.”
What does this accusation reduce itself to? The history of all past society has consisted in the development of class antagonisms, antagonisms that assumed different forms at different epochs.
If you read the whole thing, it states that opponets accuse communism of doing that.
However, there is no question on whether or not Marx was an atheist. One of his most famous quotes is, "Religion is the opium of the people.' But, the question remains on whether Marxs' personal opinions should be considered communist dogma.
Vladimir Lenin - Unlike Trotsky, Lenin is pretty easy to pin down.
So far as the party of the socialist proletariat is concerned, religion is not a private affair. Our Party is an association of class-conscious, advanced fighters for the emancipation of the working class. Such an association cannot and must not be indifferent to lack of class-consciousness, ignorance or obscurantism in the shape of religious beliefs.
However, he did not favor the discrimination against the religous.
Everyone must be absolutely free to profess any religion he pleases, or no religion whatever, i.e., to be an atheist, which every socialist is, as a rule. Discrimination among citizens on account of their religious convictions is wholly intolerable. Even the bare mention of a citizen’s religion in official documents should unquestionably be eliminated.
"Our Programme is based entirely on the scientific, and moreover the materialist, world-outlook. An explanation of our Programme, therefore, necessarily includes an explanation of the true historical and economic roots of the religious fog. Our propaganda necessarily includes the propaganda of atheism; the publication of the appropriate scientific literature, which the autocratic feudal government has hitherto strictly forbidden and persecuted, must now form one of the fields of our Party work. We shall now probably have to follow the advice Engels once gave to the German Socialists: to translate and widely disseminate the literature of the eighteenth-century French Enlighteners and atheists."
It would be bourgeois narrow-mindedness to forget that the yoke of religion that weighs upon mankind is merely a product and reflection of the economic yoke within society. 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.
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. We shall always preach the scientific world-outlook, and it is essential for us to combat the inconsistency of various “Christians”.
Trotsky on Religion - Trotsky, if you ask me, has contradicted himself over the religion question. Even though an atheist, he does say the folowing:
Originally posted by Leon Trotsky in his essay+ "Tolstoy, Poet, and Rebel"--> (Leon Trotsky in his essay @ "Tolstoy, Poet, and Rebel")Tolstoy returns to God, accepts the teachings of Christ, rejects division of labor and along with it, culture and the state; he becomes the preacher of agricultural labor, of the simple life and of non-resistance to evil by force.[/b]
(Leon Trotsky in his essay @ "If America Should Go Communist.")Even the intensity and devotion of religious sentiment in America will not prove an obstacle to the revolution. If one assumes the perspective of soviets in America, none of the psychological brakes will prove firm enough to retard the pressure of the social crisis. This has been demonstrated more than once in history. Besides, it should not be forgotten that the Gospels themselves contain some pretty explosive aphorisms.[/b][/quote]
He (obviously and rightly) did criticise the Russian Orthodox Church for trying to preserve the Tsar's power. He writes in "The History of the Russian Revolution" the following:
"The clergy, following after the nobility, played no small rôle in the formation of the tzarist autocracy, but nevertheless a servile rôle. The church never rose in Russia to that commanding height which it attained in the Catholic West; it was satisfied with the rôle of spiritual servant of the autocracy, and counted this a recompense for its humility. The bishops and metropolitans enjoyed authority merely as deputies of the temporal power."
However, despite the two beginning quotes, he seemed to be a firm believer that religion would not survive into socialism. Perhaps his opinions changed with time, or perhaps he was just contradicting himself.
"Religion will only cease to exist completely with the development of the socialist system, that is, when technology frees people from degrading forms of dependency on nature, and amid social relations that are no longer mysterious, which are completely transparent and do not oppress people."
Rosa Luxemburg - Rosa Luxemburg has a pretty interesting essay, Socialism and the Church (http://marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1905/misc/socialism-churches.htm).
(Rosa Luxemburg in her essay @ "Socialism and the Church")Every man may hold what faith and what opinions seem likely to him to ensure happiness. No one has the right to persecute or to attack the particular religious opinion of others. That is what the socialists think. And it is for that reason, among others, that the socialists rally all the people to fight against the Czarist regime, which is continually violating men's consciences, persecuting Catholics, Russian Catholics[1], Jews, heretics and freethinkers. [/b][/quote]
(Rosa Luxemburg in her essay @ "Socialism and the Church")In the beginning, when the number of Christians was small, the clergy did not exist in the proper sense of the word. The faithful, who formed an independent religious community, united together in each city. They elected a member responsible for conducting the service of God and carrying out the religious rites. Every Christian could become the bishop or prelate. These functions were elective, subject to recall, honorary and carried no power other than that which the community gave of its own free will[/b][/quote]
(Rosa Luxemburg in her essay @ "Socialism and the Church")After having briefly reviewed the history of the Church, we cannot be surprised that the clergy supports the Czarist government and the capitalists against the revolutionary workers who fight for a better future. The class-conscious workers organised in the Social-Democratic Party, fight to bring into reality the idea of social equality and of fraternity among men, the object which was formerly that of the Christian Church.
Nonetheless, equality cannot be realised either in a society based on slavery nor in a society based on serfdom; it becomes capable of being realised in our present period, that is, the regime of industrial capitalism. What the Christian Apostles could not accomplish by their ardent discourses against the egoism of the rich, the modern proletarians, workers conscious of their class-position, can start working in the near future, by the conquest of political power in all countries by tearing the factories, the land, and all the means of production from the capitalists to make them the communal property of the workers. [/b][/quote]
(Rosa Luxemburg @ in her essay "Socialism and the Church")But it is in vain that you put yourselves about, you degenerate servants of Christianity who have become the servants of Nero. It is in vain that you help our murderers and our killers, in vain that you protect the exploiters of the proletariat under the sign of the cross. Your cruelties and your calumnies in former times could not prevent the victory of the Christian idea, the idea which you have sacrificed to the Golden Calf; today your efforts will raise no obstacle to the coming of Socialism. Today it is you, in your lies and your teachings, who are pagans, and it is we who bring to the poor, to the exploited the tidings of fraternity and equality. It is we who are marching to the conquest of the world as he did formerly who proclaimed that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.[/b][/quote]
Rosa [email protected] in her essay "Socialism and the Church"
And here is the answer to all the attacks of the clergy: the Social-Democracy in no way fights against religious beliefs. On the contrary, it demands complete freedom of conscience for every individual and the widest possible toleration for every faith and every opinion. But, from the moment when the priests use the pulpit as a means of political struggle against the working classes, the workers must fight against the enemies of their rights and their liberation. For he who defends the exploiters and who helps to prolong this present regime of misery, he is the mortal enemy of the proletariat, whether he be in a cassock or in the uniform of the police.
Stalin on Religion - Stalin was an atheist, no doubt about it. He also wanted the eventual elimination of religion. Chruches were levelled, preists and nuns were killed and persecuted, as you could easily expect from Stalin. However, when he could use religion to suit his own needs, he would be willing to compromise. When the Nazis broke the peace pact between the Soviet Union, Stalin used the church as a way of arousing nationalism.
Hoxha on Religion - The father of anti-revisionism, as you can expect, was a devout follower of anti-theism, to the point massive rights violations.Inspired by the Chinese Cultural Revolution, he made religous institutions a thing of the past. Churches became shops, stables, and movie theaters. Qur-ans, Bilbles, icons, and anything to do with religion was outlawed with the punishment of long periods in prison. Parents couldn't even name their children names that were reminicent of religion.
Mao Zedong - While I could not find much of any concrete religous views by Mao, I will guess that the Cultural Revolution, with the intent of destroying all old ideas, would've eliminated religion.
Che Guevara - I can't really seem to find anything on Che Guevara. However, there was a thread about 5 years ago that was a discussion on Che, Religion, and communism.
Che Guevara and Religion (http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php?showtopic=953&hl=)
Fidel Castro - Fidel Castro began as a man who was willing to undermine religion. So much so, that the Catholic Church dictated that Catholics could no longer support any "communist governments", mostly due to Castro.
However, in 1992, repression of the religous was loosened. Loosened a lot. So much so that Catholics who go to church were allowed to join the Communist Party of Cuba. In 1998, Christmas became an official holiday in Cuba.
Edit: Added paragraph on Rosa Luxemburg
(Note: The following is to the author's best knowledge. Corrections and comments are greatly appreciated)
Revolutionaries on Religion
Marx on Religion - Marx is famous for his atheism. In the communist manifesto, he states:
Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality...
However, it could be said that this line was taken out of context.
When the ancient world was in its last throes, the ancient religions were overcome by Christianity. When Christian ideas succumbed in the 18th century to rationalist ideas, feudal society fought its death battle with the then revolutionary bourgeoisie. The ideas of religious liberty and freedom of conscience merely gave expression to
the sway of free competition within the domain of knowledge.
“Undoubtedly,” it will be said, “religious, moral, philosophical, and juridical ideas have been modified in the course of historical development. But religion, morality, philosophy, political science, and law, constantly survived this change.”“There are, besides, eternal truths, such as
Freedom, Justice, etc., that are common to all states of society. But Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience.”
What does this accusation reduce itself to? The history of all past society has consisted in the development of class antagonisms, antagonisms that assumed different forms at different epochs.
If you read the whole thing, it states that opponets accuse communism of doing that.
However, there is no question on whether or not Marx was an atheist. One of his most famous quotes is, "Religion is the opium of the people.' But, the question remains on whether Marxs' personal opinions should be considered communist dogma.
Vladimir Lenin - Unlike Trotsky, Lenin is pretty easy to pin down.
So far as the party of the socialist proletariat is concerned, religion is not a private affair. Our Party is an association of class-conscious, advanced fighters for the emancipation of the working class. Such an association cannot and must not be indifferent to lack of class-consciousness, ignorance or obscurantism in the shape of religious beliefs.
However, he did not favor the discrimination against the religous.
Everyone must be absolutely free to profess any religion he pleases, or no religion whatever, i.e., to be an atheist, which every socialist is, as a rule. Discrimination among citizens on account of their religious convictions is wholly intolerable. Even the bare mention of a citizen’s religion in official documents should unquestionably be eliminated.
"Our Programme is based entirely on the scientific, and moreover the materialist, world-outlook. An explanation of our Programme, therefore, necessarily includes an explanation of the true historical and economic roots of the religious fog. Our propaganda necessarily includes the propaganda of atheism; the publication of the appropriate scientific literature, which the autocratic feudal government has hitherto strictly forbidden and persecuted, must now form one of the fields of our Party work. We shall now probably have to follow the advice Engels once gave to the German Socialists: to translate and widely disseminate the literature of the eighteenth-century French Enlighteners and atheists."
It would be bourgeois narrow-mindedness to forget that the yoke of religion that weighs upon mankind is merely a product and reflection of the economic yoke within society. 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.
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. We shall always preach the scientific world-outlook, and it is essential for us to combat the inconsistency of various “Christians”.
Trotsky on Religion - Trotsky, if you ask me, has contradicted himself over the religion question. Even though an atheist, he does say the folowing:
Originally posted by Leon Trotsky in his essay+ "Tolstoy, Poet, and Rebel"--> (Leon Trotsky in his essay @ "Tolstoy, Poet, and Rebel")Tolstoy returns to God, accepts the teachings of Christ, rejects division of labor and along with it, culture and the state; he becomes the preacher of agricultural labor, of the simple life and of non-resistance to evil by force.[/b]
(Leon Trotsky in his essay @ "If America Should Go Communist.")Even the intensity and devotion of religious sentiment in America will not prove an obstacle to the revolution. If one assumes the perspective of soviets in America, none of the psychological brakes will prove firm enough to retard the pressure of the social crisis. This has been demonstrated more than once in history. Besides, it should not be forgotten that the Gospels themselves contain some pretty explosive aphorisms.[/b][/quote]
He (obviously and rightly) did criticise the Russian Orthodox Church for trying to preserve the Tsar's power. He writes in "The History of the Russian Revolution" the following:
"The clergy, following after the nobility, played no small rôle in the formation of the tzarist autocracy, but nevertheless a servile rôle. The church never rose in Russia to that commanding height which it attained in the Catholic West; it was satisfied with the rôle of spiritual servant of the autocracy, and counted this a recompense for its humility. The bishops and metropolitans enjoyed authority merely as deputies of the temporal power."
However, despite the two beginning quotes, he seemed to be a firm believer that religion would not survive into socialism. Perhaps his opinions changed with time, or perhaps he was just contradicting himself.
"Religion will only cease to exist completely with the development of the socialist system, that is, when technology frees people from degrading forms of dependency on nature, and amid social relations that are no longer mysterious, which are completely transparent and do not oppress people."
Rosa Luxemburg - Rosa Luxemburg has a pretty interesting essay, Socialism and the Church (http://marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1905/misc/socialism-churches.htm).
(Rosa Luxemburg in her essay @ "Socialism and the Church")Every man may hold what faith and what opinions seem likely to him to ensure happiness. No one has the right to persecute or to attack the particular religious opinion of others. That is what the socialists think. And it is for that reason, among others, that the socialists rally all the people to fight against the Czarist regime, which is continually violating men's consciences, persecuting Catholics, Russian Catholics[1], Jews, heretics and freethinkers. [/b][/quote]
(Rosa Luxemburg in her essay @ "Socialism and the Church")In the beginning, when the number of Christians was small, the clergy did not exist in the proper sense of the word. The faithful, who formed an independent religious community, united together in each city. They elected a member responsible for conducting the service of God and carrying out the religious rites. Every Christian could become the bishop or prelate. These functions were elective, subject to recall, honorary and carried no power other than that which the community gave of its own free will[/b][/quote]
(Rosa Luxemburg in her essay @ "Socialism and the Church")After having briefly reviewed the history of the Church, we cannot be surprised that the clergy supports the Czarist government and the capitalists against the revolutionary workers who fight for a better future. The class-conscious workers organised in the Social-Democratic Party, fight to bring into reality the idea of social equality and of fraternity among men, the object which was formerly that of the Christian Church.
Nonetheless, equality cannot be realised either in a society based on slavery nor in a society based on serfdom; it becomes capable of being realised in our present period, that is, the regime of industrial capitalism. What the Christian Apostles could not accomplish by their ardent discourses against the egoism of the rich, the modern proletarians, workers conscious of their class-position, can start working in the near future, by the conquest of political power in all countries by tearing the factories, the land, and all the means of production from the capitalists to make them the communal property of the workers. [/b][/quote]
(Rosa Luxemburg @ in her essay "Socialism and the Church")But it is in vain that you put yourselves about, you degenerate servants of Christianity who have become the servants of Nero. It is in vain that you help our murderers and our killers, in vain that you protect the exploiters of the proletariat under the sign of the cross. Your cruelties and your calumnies in former times could not prevent the victory of the Christian idea, the idea which you have sacrificed to the Golden Calf; today your efforts will raise no obstacle to the coming of Socialism. Today it is you, in your lies and your teachings, who are pagans, and it is we who bring to the poor, to the exploited the tidings of fraternity and equality. It is we who are marching to the conquest of the world as he did formerly who proclaimed that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.[/b][/quote]
Rosa [email protected] in her essay "Socialism and the Church"
And here is the answer to all the attacks of the clergy: the Social-Democracy in no way fights against religious beliefs. On the contrary, it demands complete freedom of conscience for every individual and the widest possible toleration for every faith and every opinion. But, from the moment when the priests use the pulpit as a means of political struggle against the working classes, the workers must fight against the enemies of their rights and their liberation. For he who defends the exploiters and who helps to prolong this present regime of misery, he is the mortal enemy of the proletariat, whether he be in a cassock or in the uniform of the police.
Stalin on Religion - Stalin was an atheist, no doubt about it. He also wanted the eventual elimination of religion. Chruches were levelled, preists and nuns were killed and persecuted, as you could easily expect from Stalin. However, when he could use religion to suit his own needs, he would be willing to compromise. When the Nazis broke the peace pact between the Soviet Union, Stalin used the church as a way of arousing nationalism.
Hoxha on Religion - The father of anti-revisionism, as you can expect, was a devout follower of anti-theism, to the point massive rights violations.Inspired by the Chinese Cultural Revolution, he made religous institutions a thing of the past. Churches became shops, stables, and movie theaters. Qur-ans, Bilbles, icons, and anything to do with religion was outlawed with the punishment of long periods in prison. Parents couldn't even name their children names that were reminicent of religion.
Mao Zedong - While I could not find much of any concrete religous views by Mao, I will guess that the Cultural Revolution, with the intent of destroying all old ideas, would've eliminated religion.
Che Guevara - I can't really seem to find anything on Che Guevara. However, there was a thread about 5 years ago that was a discussion on Che, Religion, and communism.
Che Guevara and Religion (http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php?showtopic=953&hl=)
Fidel Castro - Fidel Castro began as a man who was willing to undermine religion. So much so, that the Catholic Church dictated that Catholics could no longer support any "communist governments", mostly due to Castro.
However, in 1992, repression of the religous was loosened. Loosened a lot. So much so that Catholics who go to church were allowed to join the Communist Party of Cuba. In 1998, Christmas became an official holiday in Cuba.
Edit: Added paragraph on Rosa Luxemburg