Sunday Sermon

“Man makes religion, religion does not make man." - Marx

Man made god in its image not the other way around.

The Catholic Church in the Middle Ages owned nearly a third of all the land of Europe. To administer those vast holdings, it established a continent-wide system of canon law that tied together multiple jurisdictions of empire, nation, barony, bishopric, religious order, chartered city, guild, confraternity, merchants, entrepreneurs, traders, et cetera. It also provided local and regional administrative bureaucracies of arbitrators, jurists, negotiators, and judges, along with an international language, “canon law Latin.”

Organised churches tend predominantly towards dogma and discipline, oppressive social codes and intolerance. The teachings of Jesus of Nazareth may well be full of egalitarian and possibly even liberatory potential but much of his work and that of his followers has been more or less expunged from the orthodox canon by the church set up in his name. Many may be drawn to the idea of a utopian communist teacher from Galilee but all of the Son of God theology, the Trinity and,  all the original sin  and repentance stuff is just so many more links in the chain of subjugation.  It's about the power structures of religions and the way that religions cosy up to the state. Socialists do not see any religions as neutral. As a form of alienated consciousness, religion is a "problem" in the sense that it prevents a complete understanding of the world and thereby a barrier to changing that world. At different points in history, certain religions can have a radical or conservative impact on the evolution of society, but it's difficult to see any progressive role for any religion in today's world.

Whether someone's got an invisible friend they believe in is neither here or there, it is a bit of eccentricity, but what if that invisible friend tells them what to think and how to act. It is about challenging the view that human thoughts and behaviour are pre-determined by this invisible friend. “Truths” are not eternal, but democratically arrived at. And as society changes, so the “truth” will change.

The members of the Socialist Party are technically not atheists. We’re materialists.  An atheist defines themselves in opposition to a set of ideas. A materialist has a view of how ideas originate and how social change can come about. We live in the real world, not the world of “spirit”. Socialists use a materialist analysis to try to understand this material world and society. For a materialist, where is your 'spirit' located, if not in your brain. Consciousness is something that "takes place" in the physical brain. Consciousness is a product of society, but rooted in the material brain? That is, without society, an individual wouldn’t be conscious, in any meaningful way.  Materialism means a correct understanding of how religion comes to exist, not its ideological polar opposite. As a materialist we say "Christianity as a social institution can be explained not as an act of divine will but as the product of specific historical trends and events." We don’t say "We hate Christians and they are all reactionary idiots by definition!" That would be akin to saying "this group of people are evil," which would be an obvious instance of religious-type thinking.

We should strive to educate people not ignore their ignorance.

It's possible to understand that parts of the material world are as yet unknown, without slipping into believing that the unknown can't be materially known. For socialists, the ruling class have always used the 'unknown', the 'indescribable', the 'transcendent', the 'non-material', 'god', 'spirit', etc. to mystify the world for the exploited classes. That's why we should remain be very sceptical about the 'non-material' that we can't examine. That's where priests come from, for someone special is always able to explain the 'spiritual' for us. Socialists stick to the mundane ‘as-yet-unknown natural’. It’s still a ‘mystery’, but one we’re keen to try and solve.

Religious superstitions are not just silly outmoded belief systems, like astrology, fortune - telling and other stupid pastimes. They are dangerous delusions which can prevent understanding of the world as it really is. Whether it is the voodoo mumbo-jumbo coming from Rome, Mecca, or any other “holy” place, all religions are quite good at keeping workers appropriately deferential, docile, and slavish. Religions assert unreasonable and unreasoning certainty based upon no evidence whatever. For socialists, religion only has one purpose: the mystification of the real social world for the exploited classes. Consequently, socialists cannot be believers in any form of religious superstition.

Take Jesus, for example in the sermon on the mount:
“Do not worry then, saying, "What will we eat?" or "What will we drink?" or "What will we wear for clothing?" For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “

His teachings are an example of telling people to ignore or put off material wants in favour of seeking God and getting into heaven. It makes sense, if you think you can live forever in the afterlife in total peace and happiness; but is completely opposed to class struggle. Why should you bother asking for more wages if you'll get "pie in the sky when you die", in the words of the old Wobbly song? Religion is not about "morality", it is about obedience.

 Some atheists engage in "counter-prosletysing" but that seems like a waste of energy. Rational argument alone will not convince people to abandon religion because religious conviction is not primarily arrived at through a rational process (people don't generally become religious because they've sat down and thought through the issues but due to indoctrination, spiritual experiences, etc. The best way to counter this is the class struggle. When workers begin to take control of their own lives and begin the task of bringing social life under the conscious control of humanity, the basis of religion will melt away. The Socialist Party is organisation that has a collective view on what is capitalism and what is socialism. We also hold a common view on what religion isand declare that they aren't compatible. We don't claim that they hold the only possible version of those views, as far as I know, and therefore it is entirely possible to be a self-defined religious socialist , without having views on religion that the Socialist Party would agree with.  Our politics, however, flow quite straightforwardly from a materialistic world view, as earlier explained.  Nevertheless, it is perfectly possible for people who hold religious beliefs to try and change things in material terms For ourselves though the argument is always about materialism versus idealism, about the tendency to seek solutions outside of reality. One cannot be both an idealist and a materialist at the same time. One cannot believe both that God created Man, and that man created god. To repeat, the Socialist Party is a materialist organisation . Membership of it is incompatible with an idealist world-view. Idealist world-views tend  to see solutions to material problems lying in the realm of the ideal. Materialist world views tend to see solutions in the material conditions

St Paul wrote:
 “”Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”
“”Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation."

The danger presented by religious fundamentalism is a real one. It threatens us as socialists as much as it threatens all other “servants of Satan”. Our ability to spread our ideas depends on tolerance of minority opinions. However, people whose minds have been addled by belief in magic, miracles and divine texts are unlikely to be receptive to socialist ideas.

And so endeth the lesson for today.

AJJ