Regarding Socialism and Religion

Regarding socialism and Religion:
So, anyone with a passing familiarity of Marx has heard the phrase, "religion is the opiate of the masses," and this is used as evidence that communism is atheistic.

And true, some revolutionaries have that interpretation and have ran with it, and even if they weren't outright hostile towards religion they still assumed that as communist society and relations developed that religion would invariably wither away.

But this isn't quite an accurate interpretation of the point Marx was making. For one, the word opiate had a different connotation back then. "The opiate of the masses" didn't imply that religion was a drug that drove people into a stupor and dulled them to the outside world, or anything like that. It was a pain reliever.

Marx noted that capitalism was driving the working class into deeper and deeper levels of desperation. People were driven into squalor, driven further and further in debt, and the only thing they could see in their future was a life of never ending toil.

This bleak future that capitalism presents makes the idea of salvation in the next life appealing. It soothes the soul, and gives hope that there is some reward at the end of all of this toil.

It's not an observation that religion or spirituality is inherent to capitalism, it's an observation that capitalism creates the conditions that drive more people toward religion because of the bleakness of capitalist social relations.

But this observation makes no claim that religious worship requires capitalism, or that capitalism requires religious worship. And with nothing necessitating that they coexist, there's also no reason to believe that religion must be abolished to get rid of capitalism, or conversely that religion will disappear when capitalism is defeated.

Contrast this with the theory of the socialist state inevitably withering away. The Marxist theory of the state is that it is an institution that arose from the historical conditions of class society, and that the role the state was required to fill is the domination of one class interests over the other where those class interests come into irreconcilable conflict. Capitalism requires a state, because a tiny minority of exploiting capitalist cannot possibly have their will win out over the vast majority without an instrument of class domination enforcing their will. But the socialist state is only required to exist to enforce the will of the masses until a point in time when this capitalist class inevitably disappears because they have been legislated out of existence and fallen into the ranks of the vast majority.

We have a theory of the state that is necessarily tied to class conflict, but there is no similar theory for religion.

Marx himself was atheist, so he didn't have too much to say on the intersection between religion and class struggle that I'm aware of, other than an opposition to the establishment of an official religion. If anyone is more familiar with Marx's thoughts on religion, feel free to drop them here.

But there has been a ton of scholarly work outside of Marx, that approaches the question of human liberation and the intersection of religion and class struggle from both Marxist and non-Marxist points of view. Liberation theology is a popular school of thought through Latin America. "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" is a highly recommended book on liberation theology, though I must admit that this one is on my reading list but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Cuba is an interesting case study on this topic. Fidel initially banned certain religious gatherings, closed down churches, and expelled Catholic priests from the country, and a decade and a half after the revolution adopts a constitution that declares Cuba to be an atheist state.

However, what's important to keep in mind is that the Catholic church, which was the primary church in Cuba, is a deeply political organization. During this time period, the Vatican was actively opposing communist movements. Priests who expressed communist views or subscribed to the tenants of liberation theology were often excommunicated from the church, and the church itself was used as a bully pulpit to agitate anti-communist sentiments. So while measures like banning worship may have been excessive or misguided, what we see is conflict with a powerful and influential organization that is opposing the interests of the masses, and no simple resolution to that conflict.

This early experience with the Catholic church soured Fidel and much of the communist party on religion, but this anti-religious sentiment would soften as time went on. Fifteen years after Cuba was declared as an atheist state, the constitution was amended to make Cuba a secular state and allowed people with open religious affiliation to become members of the party. And later in life, after studying the topic more and learning from liberation theologists, Fidel became openly supportive of religion as an aspect of class struggle and human liberation. The book "Fidel and Religion" is a great resource on this topic.

And finally, there's a podcast I recommend called "The Magnificast" which is hosted by two Christian socialists, and they dive into a wide variety of topics regarding how different theologies intersect with the struggle for socialism. They themselves are Christian, but they talk about more than just Christianity.

Personally, I'm not religiously affiliated, but I have an interest in this topic because my mom is someone who holds religion as very important to her, and I wanted to be able to connect with her on that topic.