Zone1 Communism and Religion

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Communists, or Bolsheviks, were militant atheists because they believed religion was a tool used by the elite to control the population and that it threatened their power. They also believed that religion was a product of unjust economic relations and oppressive political structures, and that it was intellectually deadening. Karl Marx famously wrote that religion was an "opiate of the masses".

Communism and Religion

 

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“Within the philosophical system of Marx and Lenin, and at the heart of their psychology, hatred of God is the principal driving force, more fundamental than all their political and economic pretensions. Militant atheism is not merely incidental or marginal to Communist policy; it is not a side effect, but the central pivot. To achieve its diabolical ends, Communism needs to control a population devoid of religious and national feeling, and this entails the destruction of faith and nationhood. Communists proclaim both of these objectives openly, and just as openly go about carrying them out.”​

Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn1

 

[Mr Natural]

Well, they got one thing right at least.

 

[Oddball]

Communists, or Bolsheviks, were militant atheists because they believed religion was a tool used by the elite to control the population and that it threatened their power. They also believed that religion was a product of unjust economic relations and oppressive political structures, and that it was intellectually deadening. Karl Marx famously wrote that religion was an "opiate of the masses".

Communism and Religion

The State is their god....Can't serve two masters, and all that.

 

[Oddball]

Well, they got one thing right at least.

Yet you'll turn right around to genuflect to and swab the ass of The State.

 

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Well, they got one thing right at least.

Glad for your honesty.

 

[ReinyDays]

Communists, or Bolsheviks, were militant atheists because they believed religion was a tool used by the elite to control the population and that it threatened their power. They also believed that religion was a product of unjust economic relations and oppressive political structures, and that it was intellectually deadening. Karl Marx famously wrote that religion was an "opiate of the masses".

Communism and Religion

Which elite ... maybe as Americans, we don't understand Church and State being one in the same ... if the Bolsheviks wanted to destroy the Tzarist Government, they had to destroy the Russian Orthodox Church as well ... they needed all the powers of both to run their government ...

The Russians were better off under the Communists than they were under The Tzar ... serfdom is considered a form of slavery ... can't blame The People from being angry ... "Anastasia screamed in vain" ... murdering The Rich makes folks happy ...

 

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Most Americans believe in God, and a majority observe some form of religion or spiritual practice.2 Communism—theoretically, ideologically, and historically—opposes God and all forms of religion. From the time of Karl Marx to today, communism is based on the abolition of religion. In 1844, Marx wrote, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”3 He compared religion with opium because he believed that religion, like a drug, provides at best temporary relief from pain and suffering. For Marx, man created religion to survive life’s hardships. This famous quote is more than a summary of Marx’s views of religion and God. Marx was an avowed atheist, and he denied the existence of a divine being or God. This denial stands as a major cornerstone of Marx’s outlook, in which religion is a symptom of the evil bourgeois society.4 He predicted that communism would eliminate the need for religion: once freed from capitalist oppression, people would no longer need the illusory relief they sought in artificial faith. In its place, Marx believed that ‘human self-consciousness’ would, through the abolition of the capitalist society, remove the causes for alienation and suffering.5

 

[ReinyDays]

Because religion competes with them for power ... here in the United States, Church has no political power outside Utah ... Marx speaks against these Churches who are Government ... or that the governments based on Church should be dissolved ... what we did on July 4th, 1776 ...

 

[BreezeWood]

... hatred of God is the principal driving force,

only an idiot or christian monarchist would claim those at the turn of that century hated the heavens or even gave it a thought ... the desert religions were their enemy and in the end made them pay for their treachery.

 

[The Irish Ram]

Communists, or Bolsheviks, were militant atheists because they believed religion was a tool used by the elite to control the population and that it threatened their power. They also believed that religion was a product of unjust economic relations and oppressive political structures, and that it was intellectually deadening. Karl Marx famously wrote that religion was an "opiate of the masses".

Communism and Religion

And then they go and kill millions, because they have made "self" their opiate...

 

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only an idiot or christian monarchist would claim those at the turn of that century hated the heavens or even gave it a thought ... the desert religions were their enemy and in the end made them pay for their treachery.

Vladimir Lenin agreed with Marx: “’Religion is the opium of the people’—this dictum by Marx is the corner-stone of the whole Marxist outlook on religion.”6 Lenin then expanded upon Marxism with the argument that all religion is a tool used by the bourgeois to repress the working class.7 The Marxist-Leninist outlook drove the decision to formally institute anti-religious policy at the Russian Communist Party’s Eighth congress in 1920. Here, the Bolsheviks decided, “As far as religion is concerned, the RCP [Russian Communist Party] will not be satisfied by the decreed separation of Church and State.”8 Rather than wait for the creation of a communist society to make religion unnecessary (as Marx believed), Lenin would actively seek to destroy it. This policy has served as the foundation for decades of religious persecution in the Soviet Union and the rest of the communist world.

 

[The Irish Ram]

Because religion competes with them for power ... here in the United States, Church has no political power outside Utah ... Marx speaks against these Churches who are Government ... or that the governments based on Church should be dissolved ... what we did on July 4th, 1776 ...

What we did in 1776 was insure that the government didn't encroach on religion, not the other way around. Our government relied heavily on religion in 1776.

 

[Picaro]

Karl Marx famously wrote that religion was an "opiate of the masses".

He wasn't necessarily saying it as a negative thing; the masses in Europe certainly needed something to hope for and relive them in the 1800's; that's why so many fled to the U.S. in waves, long before there were any 'Marxist' countries. We still had frontiers thought to still be free from corporatists of all stripes and hard work would still pay off.

In any case both the right wing and the left wing heavily abuse the lower classes; right wing corporatism and left wing corporatism are distinctions without a difference in most peoples' economic reality. We can see how well Wall Street and most of the billionaire class gets along with Red China. They're made for each other, they're the same people. Both despise populism and depend on plundering slaves for their power. Christianity held out a voluntary community based on mutual aid and support that actually aimed to help people survive in a hostile world, while the corporatists were the hostile world, and still is.

Mass murder as the go to solution for any and all socio-economic inconveniences isn't exclusive to Marxists.