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Is misotheism essential for a genuine communist? (reddthat.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I was wondering, since religions are fundamentally social structures built to set hierarchies and justify inequality, and all religious dogma and theology has failed to disprove the null hypothesis of atheism, does it hamper a comrade's integrity if she is conflicted in shedding off her circumstantial religion?

What do you guys think?

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Its not so much about swearing off religion as it is swearing off idealism which is necessary. "genuine"ness is a pitfall here, any communist no matter how poor quality can be genuine. The actual measure you should be thinking about is effectiveness of a communist. If religious thinking gets in the way of communist thinking, then that requires change. The chief example is christain philosophy emphasising that sacrifice and defeat is nobel and good. Sacrifice is a dead end tactic, and thinking its useful leads a lot of western communists into a total dead end. I really recommend reading this essay https://redsails.org/western-marxism-and-christianity/

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

Its not so much about swearing off religion as it is swearing off idealism which is necessary.

Exactly, and this also means swearing off reddit atheism, which posits a fundamentally idea-driven functioning of hierarchies when it puts the blame for hierarchies on religious dogma.

The Marxist critique of religion has always understood religiosity as a reaction to unbearable material conditions. "Opiate of the masses" means self-medication of pain caused by fundamentally hurtful circumstances, and it is these agonizing circumstances, not the painkillers, that deserve the most attention.