Marx and Religion

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Marx and Religion
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Main Points about Religion

• All moral theories are products of the economic
  conditions of their times.
• Religion is socially constructed and based on
  falsehoods.
• Religion is used by the ruling class as a way of
  immobilizing the oppressed classes.
• Religion hinders the progress of science.
• Development of natural sciences destroys a
  religious outlook.
• Scientific and materialist propaganda is the most
  effective weapon against religion, persecution of
  religion can only intensify religious feeling.
• Religion creates an illusory happiness that
  must be abolished for real happiness to occur.

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Three Main Aspects of Ideologies

• they obscure reality
• they promote the interests of the ruling class
• they support oppression and/or exploitation

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Religious Propaganda in the Soviet Union
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Lenins Attitude Toward Religion

• Every religious idea, every idea of God, even
  flirting with the idea of God, is unutterable
  vileness . . . Vilenss of the most dangerous
  kind, contagion of the most abominable kind.
  Millions of sins, filthy deeds, acts of violence
  and physical contagions . . . are far less
  dangerous than the subtle, spiritual idea of a
  God decked out in the smartest ideological
  costumes . . . . Every defence or justification
  of the idea of God, even the most refined, the
  best intentioned, is a justification of
  reaction. (as cited in Conqest, 1968, p. 7)

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More from Lenin

• the more reactionary clergy and reactionary
  bourgeoisie we are able to execute by firing
  squad . . . the better (as cited in Troyanovsky,
  1991, p. 6)

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Religious Adherence

• 1900 99 of Russians classified themselves as
  either Christian, Muslim, or Jewish
• 1950s 44 consider themselves religious
  adherents (Barrett, 1982)
• 1989 33 consider themselves religious
  adherents (Petrunina, 1997)

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Church Buildings

• 1917 80,000 Orthodox churches and 1,200
  monasteries found in what become the USSR
  (Barrett 1982, Timberlake 1995)
• 1939 1,000 Orthodox churches and no monasteries
  were found (Barrett 1982, Timberlake 1995)
• 1980 about 5,000 Christian churches in USSR
  (not including underground congregations) which
  is 1 per 50,000 people (Barrett 1982)

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Atheism

• 1900 less than 1 of population was atheist
  (Barrett, 1982)
• 1970 20-23 of the population claimed to be
  atheist (Wyman 1997)
• 1991 8 of population claimed to be atheist
  (Stark 2004)