Chapter 15 Appendix Marxist Views on Religion Must Keep Up with the Times

Any ruler must deal with religion, and many things in the world are related to religion.In order to truly complete the transformation from a revolutionary party to a ruling party, we need to re-examine the functions of religion with a new type of ruling consciousness, use rational management methods to solve the imminent political-religious problems, and use modern ideas to study scientific and rational relations between church and state.Therefore, under the situation of rapid development, the Marxist view of religion must take the lead in keeping pace with the times. Religion, which belongs to the category of belief, answers the fundamental questions of life that people cannot explain with reason.Unlike science, which explores the world of facts, religion explores the world of meaning.It is also different from philosophy. Philosophy interprets the world of meaning through rational logic, while religion interprets the world of meaning through super-rational thinking.In a word, where people can't figure it out or do it, there is religion.

Marx pointed out in "Introduction to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy": "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed soul, the emotion of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless system, religion is the opium of the people." Here, Marx used figurative language to show that religion has an important social function of "spiritual comfort for people in suffering". judge.However, when Lenin explained this sentence, he creatively added the word "narcotic", that is, it was changed to the well-known "religion is the opium that anesthetizes the people", and changed the original "people's need for religion" into "the ruling class Using religion to anesthetize the people".When the subject is changed, the meaning is completely changed.What is even more unfortunate is that Lenin attributed the phrase "religion is the opium of the people" to "the cornerstone of the entire Marxist world outlook on religious issues" (see the article "On the Attitude of Workers' Parties to Religion").Another conclusion derived from this is: "Marxism has always believed that all modern religions and churches, and various religious groups are institutions used by bourgeois reactionaries to defend the system of exploitation and anesthetize the working class. We should Struggle against religion .Since then, the phrase "religion is the opium that the bourgeoisie (ruling class) uses to numb the people" has become our standard understanding of the Marxist view of religion, and it has also become the basic basis for our religious policies.Religion is regarded as a "drug", a remnant of the old society, a foreign object that is incompatible with the advanced class, advanced political party, and advanced system, and is regarded as an ideology that is opposed to Marxism.

We should pay attention to the historical and cultural background of the language.In Europe, especially in the era of Marx, their understanding of opium is different from that of the Chinese nation who experienced the "Opium War".Marx pointed out in "Debate of the Sixth Rhine Provincial Assembly (First Paper)": "The theory of the other world is religion." Wisdom is religion." Regarding the nature of religion, Marx believed: "The state and society produce religion, that is, an upside-down worldview, because they themselves are an upside-down world." protest".Engels further pointed out in "Anti-Dühring Theory": "All religions are nothing but fantasy reflections in people's minds of external forces that dominate people's daily lives. In this reflection, human forces take the form of superhuman forces. Form.” In Marx’s eyes, religion is the product of the existence and development of human society, a spontaneous and simple world view, with certain historical rationality, and it is not completely negative, nor is it necessarily reactionary and ignorant, let alone It must be an alien force in a socialist society.Marx and Engels believed: "The social and economic structure of each era forms the basis of reality, and the legal, political facilities, religious and philosophical views of each historical period constitute the superstructure." That is to say, religion is a part of the superstructure. one of the components.

It is necessary for us to fully comprehend the original intention of Marx, especially when the proletariat seizes power, it should not regard religion as an enemy, but should use religion as a mirror to find the object of its own reformation.In addition, we should also fully understand Lenin's staged attitude towards religion.During the October Revolution, the Russian Orthodox Church colluded with reactionary forces to strongly resist the revolution, so Lenin's description of religion at that time had distinct and passionate characteristics of the times.After the success of the revolution, Lenin's point of view has new content. He proposed "not to declare that we are atheists in his own party program" and "not to prohibit Christians and people who believe in God from joining our party."He even gave an example: "If there is a priest who is willing to come to us to carry out political work together, complete the party's work sincerely, and does not oppose the party program, then we can absorb them into the Social Democratic Party... The root of modern religion is the love of capital. No amount of enlightenment books can make these people not believe in religion.” From this, it can be seen that Lenin’s theoretical thinking on religion was gradually adjusted with the reality of the revolutionary struggle, and was not always based on harsh conditions. Realistic struggles define religion negatively, but keep pace with the times as the situation develops.If Lenin had lived for a long time and experienced the whole process of transition from a revolutionary party to a ruling party, he would definitely have expounded a newer and more comprehensive view of religion.After we seized power, we did not grasp Lenin's different formulations in different historical stages, and always used "opium theory" as our standard for understanding religion, so that the country's religious policy once deviated, and we paid a price for it.

The Marxist view of religion should return to the correct track.The "reflex theory" of Marx and Engels should be used to replace Lenin's "opium anesthesia theory".Since it is a reflection, it has inevitability and rationality.Religion is fanciful in the way it reflects (that is, its theism or idealism), but it is realistic and ideal in the content it reflects (that is, its social content and cultural ideals). The struggle against suffering also has the pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty. It soothes people's hearts and gives them the courage to survive. It is a spiritual compensation for the huge lack of people's real life.The huge lack of real life is inevitable in any society, and the spiritual compensation function of religion has not been replaced so far.Religion is not a product of class struggle, nor is it a monopoly of private ownership society. Compared with various social and political systems, religion is neither feudalism nor capitalism nor socialism.However, religion can be surnamed Feng, capital, or even society.It does not always rise and fall with the rise and fall of a social system, so it can continue from ancient times to the present.It is the continuity, independence and variability of religion itself that also creates the possibility for itself to adapt to socialist society.

General Secretary Jiang Zemin put forward the discussion of "actively guiding religion to adapt to socialist society" at the National Work Conference of the Ministers of the United Front Work in 1993. Estimating the relationship between religion and socialist society affirms that religion has a basis for adapting to socialist society, embodies the theoretical quality of Marxism advancing with the times, and is the guiding ideology of our party's research on religious issues.Of course we admit that there are many incompatibility between religion and socialist society, so we need guidance, but since we are the object of guidance, we also become the object of limited solidarity, at least not the object of struggle.From then on, the Chinese Communist Party will no longer passively deal with religion, but will turn all negative factors into positive ones.General Secretary Jiang's speech surpassed the "opium anesthesia theory" and was another breakthrough development of the Marxist view of religion in practice in the new era.

In the early days of the revolution, the Communists emphasized the purity of ideology, and regarded the opposition to theism as a major event to maintain the spirit of the working class.They expend great efforts to expose the landlord bourgeoisie's use of religion to paralyze the people, which is the need of class struggle.Today, the Chinese Communist Party has transformed from a rebel to a social manager, from launching a social revolution as its main mission to stabilizing the social foundation as its main purpose.For this reason, the Marxist view of religion should also be expanded on the basis of the reflection theory, and the achievements of religious sociology and cultural studies should be introduced.We will find that religion is a social and cultural system. Although the core is the belief in gods, it also contains many cultural connotations. In addition to political functions, it also has other functions.It has both negative and positive effects on social development.

Lenin once asserted that religion would soon be thrown into the dustbin by the process of economic development itself.But today, with the rapid development of economy, science and education, religion has not disappeared. The reason is that religion has a special function for human social life that cannot be replaced by science and material wealth.In the past, various materialist understandings of religion, including Marxism, used the "structuralist" analysis method in terms of methodology, that is, to determine the characteristics of religion from the perspective of epistemology when religion arises, and from this it shows that religion is the basis of human cognition. A kind of alienation of self and understanding of the world.But we need to open up a new perspective of "functionalism" to explain religious phenomena realistically from the perspective of social practice and social function.

What irreplaceable special function does religion have in people's social life? The first is psychological function.The reason why religion can make millions of believers go forward, just as Marx said: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed soul, the emotion of a ruthless world." Man is not only a material existence, but also a spiritual existence; not only a rational existence, but also an emotional existence. exist.Stress and confusion, happiness and joy are all subjective reflections of the mind on reality.Many people need to seek comfort through religious means for all kinds of misfortunes and depressions in life.Marx said that suffering in religion is not only a manifestation of real suffering, but also a protest against this real suffering.Sometimes atheism and science can't overcome the fear of death that religion can.Revolutionaries can face death calmly for the cause of communism, but ordinary people have to believe in reincarnation, and we should understand this.Because of the management philosophy of the ruling party, different interest groups and different beliefs should be allowed to coexist.Today, the fantasy form of religious inversion has beautiful content, and the self-discipline and integrity of religion are the entry point for it to serve socialism.

Second is the moral function.When idealism was generally lost and utilitarianism was everywhere, religion became a spiritual way of life that maintained belief and morality. For example, in the 16th century, when Western industrial civilization developed too fast and led to materialistic desires, it was the Protestant ethics that supported and restored it. Western moral civilization.Society cannot live without law, let alone morality. Law and morality are like the wings of a bird, and neither can be separated.Morality is the basis of law, and crime prevention comes first; law is the guarantee of morality, and punishment for crime comes second.Man evolved from animals, and contains a brutal and selfish nature, and human consciousness alone is not enough to restrain his behavior.Out of fear, people have to rely on the power of God to regulate themselves, which is the basis for the existence of the moral function of religion.The spirit of religion to persuade people to do good is the most important function of religion affecting social life.If you remove moral teaching, religion is nothing more than an empty shell.The spirit of a nation comes from culture, the soul of culture is embodied in morality, and the support of morality lies in faith, and a nation without faith cannot stand on its own among the nations of the world, especially in China.To guide religions to adapt to socialist society, we should not simply reject the reasonable elements of religious morality, especially the peace and equality in religious values ​​and ethics, abandoning evil and pursuing good, etc., we should all respect.In the primary stage of socialism, advanced socialist culture must be compatible with reasonable elements representing other ideologies and cultures. "All in one color" is ideological dictatorship, not socialism.

The third is the cultural function.In many countries where religion is the cultural tradition, taking away religion is tantamount to having no culture.Christianity shaped European and American civilizations.There, many fields such as literature and art, painting and sculpture, music and drama, ethics and philosophy are expressed in the form of Christianity.The same is true of Chinese culture, such as the three major caves of Buddhism and the murals of Yongle Palace of Taoism, such as "world", "actuality", "experience", "enlightenment", "equality", "liberation", "fantasy", "unbelievable", "urgent" and "returning to the shore" in the Chinese language. "And so on, all came from Buddhism.Religious culture is part of traditional Chinese culture, and traditional Chinese culture is part of advanced socialist culture in China. Advanced culture guides us to govern the country with virtue, and governing the country with virtue is to rebuild our moral belief system. The concept of "religion is culture" will dilute meaningless ideological disputes, enable people to understand the rich connotations of religion more comprehensively, and provide a stage for mutual cooperation among believers, researchers, and managers.Because religion doesn't just show God's teachings, it affects society with colorful philosophies, morals, arts, and customs. In addition to the above-mentioned functions, religion also has multiple functions such as service and public welfare. In today's reform and development, the ruling party must make religion serve and adapt to the socialist society. The relational reorientation of technology. We can no longer look at the religious function solely from an atheistic point of view, otherwise the religious function will always have a negative effect on us.Religion is a social and cultural phenomenon, a value orientation, and a way of understanding life and the world.For a huge system that has accumulated the essence of human thinking for thousands of years, it cannot be simply summarized.In addition to epistemological methods, sociology, psychology, and political science methods should also be used to have a comprehensive, dynamic, and true understanding of the social functions of religion.Atheism is a requirement for the theoretical purity of Communist Party members, not for the public.As for the dispute between materialism and idealism, for ordinary people, it is a philosophical issue, not a political issue. We can no longer use religion as a tool of class struggle.Religion does not belong to any particular class. Religion has been closely connected with class struggle since the day it was born.It has been used by the ruling class as a tool for ideological control, and by the oppressed class as a banner of group resistance, which stems from the great cohesion and appeal unique to religion.The political attributes of religion first and foremost depend on those in power. We can no longer simply pit religion against science.Religion belongs to value belief, and science belongs to instrumental rationality. The relationship between the two not only conflicts, but also promotes each other.We firmly believe that science is the correct explanation of nature, society and human thinking phenomena, and believe that human beings are animals with subjectivity, always looking forward to the future.The illusory nature of religion is precisely because science still has many problems that cannot be solved temporarily, and material needs cannot be completely satisfied.In this sense, both scientific truth and religious belief are the product of human practical activities, and both are needed by human social life.When mentioning the opposition between religion and science, everyone will think of the persecution of Copernicus and Galileo by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages.In fact, religion also played a major role in promoting science and technology. Almost all scientific records in the Middle Ages in Europe were kept in monasteries, and the seeds of science mostly originated in churches.Copernicus's "On the Movement of Celestial Spheres" made use of monastery data to bring about an epoch-making revolution in celestial body theory; Kepler's celestial mechanics and Vesalius' human anatomy are closely related to religious beliefs.Both Einstein and Newton believed in religion. They knew that there is no God on the moon. The reason why they believed in religion was that they took religious ethics as their code of conduct and motivation for exploration.Of course, while respecting science and religion, we must not go to the other two extremes: one is to be keen on "specious pseudoscience";Especially in the current special period of social transformation, when social relations are in a stage of continuous change and adjustment, it is even more necessary to prevent the emergence and spread of false religions. Those fallacies that are neither in line with science nor the orthodox teachings should be protected by both science and religion. Common objections of religion. Under the guidance of the correct Marxist view of religion, our party and religion must be able to establish a scientific and reasonable relationship.Since the Spring and Autumn Period in China, the humanistic spirit has dominated, and the country has long practiced an autocratic monarchy, which makes my country's relationship between politics and religion different from other countries. "Under the whole world, is there any king's land, and is there no king's subject on the shore of the land?" This political and cultural tradition makes all religions must attach to and serve the imperial power.Both Buddhism and Taoism in Chinese history were under the jurisdiction of the government.This is completely different from the great power of the Pope in the Middle Ages in Europe as the King of Kings.There has never been a situation in the history of China where Christianity and Islam are the only religion and the state and religion are united. This is because of China's unique cultural ethics system.Since the Han Dynasty, the Confucian political ethics based on patriarchal lineage has become the guiding ideology for the management of society in successive dynasties.The government formulates various laws to restrict and manage religions, such as the issuance of certificates, the establishment of temples, the verification of the number of monks and Taoists, and so on.This kind of state-religious relationship has made China never have a religious war. The existence of religion is not a political form, but a social and cultural form. Buddhism and Taoism have always been the factors and forces of social stability in China's dynasties.In the history of the development of Chinese religions, Taoism was born and bred, Buddhism was invited in, Islam was passed on, and Christianity was brought in.In terms of the degree of fusion between foreign religions and Chinese culture, Buddhism is the most successful.No matter how powerful a foreign religion is, anyone who enters China will blend with the culture of Greater China without exception. Religion, as a kind of belief, a kind of thought, and a kind of culture, cannot be simply equated with politics, but it can never be separated from politics.General Secretary Jiang's "Three Represents" theory and the thesis of "guiding religion to adapt to socialism" will definitely enrich and develop the spiritual theory of Marxism. It will be a guide for our future religious work and ethnic work, and will inevitably reform our traditional religion. Management concepts, thus establishing a scientific and rational relationship between church and state.Once the new type of state-religion relationship is clarified, the corresponding system reform and system design will be advanced rapidly, and the foundation of the advancement lies in the construction of the legal system; once the new type of state-religion relationship is clarified, the problems related to folk beliefs and cults will also be solved in an orderly manner. National integration and orthodox religion will always be the natural enemies of cults and separatism; once the new type of relationship between church and state is clarified, it will be extremely beneficial for us to complete the transformation from a revolutionary party to a ruling party, and manage the government and government with a new type of ruling consciousness and leadership. Society, governing religion.The key to the success of all these lies in whether the Marxist view of religion keeps pace with the times.