RELIGION VERSUS MARXISM (Part 2)

                    

“Life is not Determined by Consciousness, but Consciousness by Life”

(Holy Family by Karl Marx 1844)

By ElizabethH. Elys

Social conditions are subject to constant change, even so-called “traditional” societies where the pace of change may seem slow by urban standard, this dynamic element in the social system must be taken into account when preparing management or development measure. Awareness of this historical element is important. The patterns of settlement, changes in population, the arrival and departure of individuals and ethnic, professional or socio-economic groups, the history and development of formal and informal community, institutions and changes in the structure of power and decision making responsibility will all influence the current state of resources and how they are used.

The cultural and political history has an important effect on Philosophy and Religion.

Human being exist as a community, and what makes human life possible is our mutual dependence on the vast network of social and economic relations which engulf us all, even though this is rarely acknowledged in our day-to day life. At first it is deviously acknowledged by religion, which creates a false idea of a community in which we are equal in the eyes of God. But state and religion will both be transcended when a genuine community of social and economic equal is created.

The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe!!! You have to make it fall?       

Ernesto “CHE” Guevara de la Serna

A Philosophy searches and question to get the right and logical answers, does not accept everything as a religion does unless it has a logical reason behind it. 

 

A religion preaches its followers what they should do, what they should not do. Often a religion presents rewards and punishments. 

Philosophy is, in fact, construed to be Way of Thinking. This is the reason why philosophers are called THINKERS, whereas propagators of religion are called LEADERS.

One of the most important thinkers of 19^th century was Karl Marx (1818-1883), also is best known as a revolutionary, whose works inspired the foundation of many communists regimes in the 20^th century.

Together with Friedrich Engels, he developed the system of THOUGHT, especially the doctrines that class struggle has been the main agency of historical change and the capitalism will inevitably be superseded by socialist order and classless society. In Marx’s view, religion operates as an ideological weapon use by the ruling class to justify the suffering of the poor as something inevitable and God given. Religion misleads the poor into believing that their suffering is virtuous and they will be favorited in the afterlife. Such beliefs create a false consciousness. 

Marx sees religion us the product of alienation. It arises out of suffering and acts as a consolation for it, but fails to deal with its cause namely class exploitation. Marx shows how religion may be a tool of oppression that masks exploitation and creates a false consciousness. 

The aim of Marxists is to fight for the socialist transformation of society on national and international scale. Marxists believe that it is the duty of any humane person to support the fight against such a system which involves untold misery, disease, oppression and death for millions of people in the world. Marxists welcome the opportunity of dialogue between Marxists and Christians, Muslims and other groups. 

Marxism began as a philosophy: Dialectical Materialism, it is a method of argument for resolving disagreement. The word Dialectic originated in ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in the Socratic Dialogues. Dialectics is a method of thinking and interpreting the world of both nature and society.       

Marx stated his belief that the proletariat must itself be the agent of revolutionary change in society. In the year 1848, he wrote COMMUNIST MANIFESTO, a masterpiece of political propaganda which ends with the celebrated rallying-cry: The Workers have Nothing to Lose but their Chains. They have a world to win. “WORKERS OF ALL LANDS UNITE”

Magnum Opus DAS KAPITAL, Marx established the materialist interpretation of history, it is one of the most influential works of the 19^th century. He developed his mature doctrines of the theory of surplus value, class conflict and the exploitation of the working class and predicted the victory of socialism over capitalism and the ultimate withering away of the state as the classless society of communism were achieved. 

Despite the apparent failure of Marxian principles as practiced in communist Europe, his theories still exert an enormous influence in social science, and his secular adherents continue to outnumber the followers of many other religious or political creeds.

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Compatriotas; tengan cuidado en quienes ustedes confían sus problemas. “No todos los que sonríen en una iglesia, estación de radio o clínica legal son sus Redentores”