Re: Marxism and Religion
On Feb 27, 2007, at 7:37 AM, jrdavis wrote:
PLus, there have been new findings in the field of neuro-psychology
which suggest that religion may be hard wired into out brains
(which is why even atheism takes on forms of religiousity despite
atheists best efforts).
Please. Enough of this hard-wiring stuff. There are plenty of non-
and anti-religious people in the world. Are we betraying our genetic
inheritance?
Yeah, some people who do good things politically are religious. And
some people who do bad things are too. Archbishop Romero wasn’t shot
for his religion; he was was shot because he was a challenge to the
power structure. Most likely his shooting was ordered by at least
some people who were good churchgoers. During the Central American
wars of the 1980s, and the South American wars of the 1970s, elites
were organized through things like Tradition Family Property that had
deep ties to the Catholic hierarchy. So can we isolate any
independent influence of religion from this? Or do people use
religion as an expression of their predetermined politics, where the
independent variables are temperament and interest?
Unlike Yoshie, I’ve actually gone through a couple of religious
phases in my life (always Catholic). They were the product of
alienation, repression, and unhappiness. Several people have
mentioned the “heart of a heartless world” part of Marx’s famous
opiate quote. Don’t stop there; recall the rest: “The abolition of
religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for
their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions
about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that
requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in
embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the
halo.”
Doug