>I'm really curious about this marxism=religion thing. Why do people
>conflate the two?
Because lots of Marxists are religious.
Is it because Marxism looks forward to a "better
>time" in the same manner as the Big Three monotheist religions do?
That's part of it. Marxism has an escatological element.
>But don't all movements that involve (broadly speaking) "betterment"
>involve this sort of attitude?
No. Marx took over Hegel's structure, which was expressly designed to mirror religious thinking, or (as Hegel say it) the other way.
Or is it just the "dogmatic
>fanatacism" charge?
No, that's due to dogmatic fanaticism, the way beliefs are help, immune from criticism, recourse to the hermetic texts, etc.
Thi really shouldn't be too hard. Everyone but the religious Marxists (and not all Marxists are religious, although an increasing number of the decreasing number of Marxists are religious) sees that Marxism has functioned like a religion. You think it's not a religion because it rejects the supernatural? Zen Buddhism, Unitarianism, Quakerism, and humanistic Judaism reject the supernatural.
jks
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