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Atheism is disbelief in gods.[1] By definition, atheism is a negative position, meaning it is a stance against something (in this case religion) rather than explicitly for something.[2]
Atheism is a logical consequence of philosophial materialism, since gods are supernatural and materialism entails disbelief in the supernatural. For this reason, Marxism–Leninism goes hand-in-hand with state atheism, as belief in gods is a form of idealism and thus contradicts scientific materialism.
However, while materialists are naturally atheists, the opposite is not always the case. There are still atheists who subscribe to non-religious forms of idealism such as liberalism and fascism. As Vladimir Lenin observed, idealist atheism often gives superficial analyses of religion that ignore its material roots, instead attributing religion to mere ignorance.[3] By contrast, materialist atheism understands that religion is a response to social conditions, and will wither away as social conditions improve.[3]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Iu. B. Pishchik (1970). Great Soviet Encyclopedia (3rd ed.), vol. 2: 'Atheism' (Russian: Boljšaja sovjetskaja enciklopjedija). [PDF] Moscow.
- ↑ “Since it is also natural to define “atheism” in terms of theism, it follows that, in the absence of good reasons to do otherwise, it is best for philosophers to understand the “a-” in “atheism” as negation instead of absence, as “not” instead of “without”—in other words, to take atheism to be the contradictory of theism.”
Paul Draper. "Atheism and Agnosticism" Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Archived from the original on 2024-06-05. - ↑ Jump up to: 3.0 3.1 “Why does religion retain its hold on the backward sections of the town proletariat, on broad sections of the semi-proletariat, and on the mass of the peasantry? Because of the ignorance of the people, replies the bourgeois progressist, the radical or the bourgeois materialist. And so: “Down with religion and long live atheism; the dissemination of atheist views is our chief task!” The Marxist says that this is not true, that it is a superficial view, the view of narrow bourgeois uplifters. It does not explain the roots of religion profoundly enough; it explains them, not in a materialist but in an idealist way. In modern capitalist countries these roots are mainly social. The deepest root of religion today is the socially downtrodden condition of the working masses and their apparently complete helplessness in face of the blind forces of capitalism, which every day and every hour inflicts upon ordinary working people the most horrible suffering and the most savage torment, a thousand times more severe than those inflicted by extra-ordinary events, such as wars, earthquakes, etc. “Fear made the gods.” Fear of the blind force of capital—blind because it cannot be foreseen by the masses of the people — a force which at every step in the life of the proletarian and small proprietor threatens to inflict, and does inflict “sudden,” “unexpected,” “accidental” ruin, destruction, pauperism, prostitution, death from starvation — such is the root of modern religion which the materialist must bear in mind first and foremost, if he does not want to remain an infant-school materialist. No educational book can eradicate religion from the minds of masses who are crushed by capitalist hard labour, and who are at the mercy of the blind destructive forces of capitalism, until those masses themselves learn to fight this root of religion, fight the rule of capital in all its forms, in a united, organised, planned and conscious way.”
Vladimir Lenin (1909). The attitude of the workers' party to religion. [MIA]