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How to respond to religious ideas
ISSUE No.110 of Socialism Today contained a very
good review of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Like other atheist
writers such as Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris, Dawkins launches a
ferocious attack on religion and its influence in society.
This has prompted counter-attacks from the
pro-religion camp, with titles such as The Dawkins Delusion?: Atheist
Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine, by Alistair McGrath. The
fact that The God Delusion is a bestseller in Britain should be seen as
a positive sign given the growth of the religious (particularly
Christian) right wing in the US and in other parts of the world. Dawkins
and his ilk should definitely be supported in their fight against
reactionary ideas, such as the teaching of creationism in schools, which
is becoming more widespread, particularly through Christian
fundamentalists running schools via City Academies. Marxists are
dialectical materialists, so by definition atheists.
As Niall Mulholland points out in his review,
however, Marxists have serious differences with the method that Dawkins
uses. Dawkins seems to believe that religion can be argued away through
strength of argument alone. Undoubtedly, in the odd case, a ‘believer’
may read his book and be convinced to see the world in a different
light. But Dawkins fails to see the relationship between religion and
class society. Under a class society, it will be impossible to wish away
religion, as religion stems directly from society based on the rule of
one class over another. Lenin wrote in his small pamphlet Socialism and
Religion (1905):
"Under no circumstances ought we to fall into the
error of posing the religious question in an abstract, idealistic
fashion, as an ‘intellectual’ question unconnected with the class
struggle, as is not infrequently done by the radical-democrats from
among the bourgeoisie. It would be stupid to think that, in a society
based on the endless oppression and coarsening of the worker masses,
religious prejudices could be dispelled by purely propaganda methods. 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. Unity in this really
revolutionary struggle of the oppressed class for the creation of a
paradise on earth is more important to us than unity of proletarian
opinion on paradise in heaven".
The widespread interest and discussion caused by The
God Delusion and other atheist works is positive and something that
Marxists should intervene in as more people question what is going on in
the world. The works of Lenin and other Marxists, and importantly the
method employed, is something all those who want to rid the world of
capitalism and all that goes with it, should study.
Paul Hunt
Coventry
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