I agree with most of what you said here, but I don’t think we should see religion as simply another ideology. The main reason people become religious is because it’s something that gives them comfort and helps them deal with the hardships of life, mainly caused by the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. I saw you mentioning above you’re from Spain, I’m from Brasil and we are deeply religious, to the point people are more tolerant with trans people, ex-prisioners and many other marginalized groups than atheists (though not by much). My country is extremely reactionary and homophobic, but even in the our most successful leftists groups, such as MST, people are still deeply religious - and they are far from being homophobes or reactionaries.
Going against religion here is basically political suicide. It’s sad, but it is what it is. As much as idealistic religions are though, they still are fundamentally different from liberalism and other ideologies because it’s main drive is to provide comfort.
Obviously, communists should not promote religions, but cracking down hard on them was a mistake back then and it would be a mistake now, specially with a religion like Christianity, that is full of followers with persecution complexes. Going after them would just give them justification.
The best way to fight them is to destroy what makes people seek them in the first place, that being the horrendous reality the working class lives on. For example, in many Favelas, there is basically nowhere you can go for cultural activities, like music, arts and sports… except in the local church. There, you can sing songs to praise god, and someone who was interested in learning music, it is the best place the person can go. Instead of destroying the only place people have to go, we should build basic infrastructure, parks, incentivize cultural activities in schools, where they can actually learn to draw/sing or whatever, and eventually, the church will become obsolete. Parallel to that, we have to strip away schools of any form of religion indoctrination, but there is no need to take a HARD anti-religion instance. We should focus on teaching them actual sciences and critical thinking, not on combating religion. Education + improvement of life conditions + no persecution of religions (but no incentivizing) is probably the best strategy we could follow. But it’s a long term one.
Fascists/libs on the other hand, may they rot in prison
I know, I know… And I fucking hate it, because religion is actually the door for reactionary, and people can’t live without opium… Yet here we are, atheist being persecuted just because we are clean. It’s fucking unfair, to be honest, and religion is precisely promoted by the bougies…
In my experience, the best thing that destroys faith in magic is the use of science and promoting platforms for education were skeptics can be protected and listened, while also eliminating all privileges of confessions. Being “hard” against believers may be the wrong way, since you just need a minimum scratch to make the leftiest of religious go full reactionary nutjob guru victim complex and lying machine gun (have evidence), but if we begin handling down minorital sects exposing why they are dangerous groups, such as Mormons, JWs, etc, it could be an spark that will lead to finally the dinamitation of a whole majority wanting to remove religion from the sight… Specially if you use tools such as the BITE (Behavior Information Though and Emotion) control model, we can make people realize that sacred texts, practically all of them, are cult manuals. This may help.
My answer for this, lastly, is: what did the Good Germany do to all of them Nazis when became socialist? Did it work? I think this is a good example to make first steps. Mostly where reeducated and rehabilitated, religious people just need more subtlety. Yesterday, I was in tears of joy: I deconverted someone precisely using street epistemology, and luring them into being intellectually honest with his beliefs, what actually says the Bible, and how it contradicts the world and even Jesus’s words are silly in a honest mentality. It may not be that difficult having the right people on it.
I agree with most of what you said here, but I don’t think we should see religion as simply another ideology. The main reason people become religious is because it’s something that gives them comfort and helps them deal with the hardships of life, mainly caused by the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. I saw you mentioning above you’re from Spain, I’m from Brasil and we are deeply religious, to the point people are more tolerant with trans people, ex-prisioners and many other marginalized groups than atheists (though not by much). My country is extremely reactionary and homophobic, but even in the our most successful leftists groups, such as MST, people are still deeply religious - and they are far from being homophobes or reactionaries. Going against religion here is basically political suicide. It’s sad, but it is what it is. As much as idealistic religions are though, they still are fundamentally different from liberalism and other ideologies because it’s main drive is to provide comfort.
Obviously, communists should not promote religions, but cracking down hard on them was a mistake back then and it would be a mistake now, specially with a religion like Christianity, that is full of followers with persecution complexes. Going after them would just give them justification.
The best way to fight them is to destroy what makes people seek them in the first place, that being the horrendous reality the working class lives on. For example, in many Favelas, there is basically nowhere you can go for cultural activities, like music, arts and sports… except in the local church. There, you can sing songs to praise god, and someone who was interested in learning music, it is the best place the person can go. Instead of destroying the only place people have to go, we should build basic infrastructure, parks, incentivize cultural activities in schools, where they can actually learn to draw/sing or whatever, and eventually, the church will become obsolete. Parallel to that, we have to strip away schools of any form of religion indoctrination, but there is no need to take a HARD anti-religion instance. We should focus on teaching them actual sciences and critical thinking, not on combating religion. Education + improvement of life conditions + no persecution of religions (but no incentivizing) is probably the best strategy we could follow. But it’s a long term one.
Fascists/libs on the other hand, may they rot in prison
I know, I know… And I fucking hate it, because religion is actually the door for reactionary, and people can’t live without opium… Yet here we are, atheist being persecuted just because we are clean. It’s fucking unfair, to be honest, and religion is precisely promoted by the bougies…
In my experience, the best thing that destroys faith in magic is the use of science and promoting platforms for education were skeptics can be protected and listened, while also eliminating all privileges of confessions. Being “hard” against believers may be the wrong way, since you just need a minimum scratch to make the leftiest of religious go full reactionary nutjob guru victim complex and lying machine gun (have evidence), but if we begin handling down minorital sects exposing why they are dangerous groups, such as Mormons, JWs, etc, it could be an spark that will lead to finally the dinamitation of a whole majority wanting to remove religion from the sight… Specially if you use tools such as the BITE (Behavior Information Though and Emotion) control model, we can make people realize that sacred texts, practically all of them, are cult manuals. This may help.
My answer for this, lastly, is: what did the Good Germany do to all of them Nazis when became socialist? Did it work? I think this is a good example to make first steps. Mostly where reeducated and rehabilitated, religious people just need more subtlety. Yesterday, I was in tears of joy: I deconverted someone precisely using street epistemology, and luring them into being intellectually honest with his beliefs, what actually says the Bible, and how it contradicts the world and even Jesus’s words are silly in a honest mentality. It may not be that difficult having the right people on it.