> Carl Remick
>
> Clip-
> Religion has fueled much of history's most celebrated slaughter: the
> medieval Crusades, the European Protestant-Catholic wars of the 16th-17th
> centuries, recent conflict between Hindus and Moslems on the Indian
> subcontinent, fighting between Buddhists and Hindus in Sri Lanka, the
> mishegaas that is Northern Ireland, etc. ad nauseam.
>
> ^^^^
>
> Carl, what about the approach that religion is superstructure in these
> events , and the real "fuel" is underlying class struggles ? How might
> that
> impact assessment of religion in today's situation ?
>
> Charles
------------------------
Maybe what's not being taken into sufficient account in this discussion is
the widely different nature and degree of religious belief in different
settings. There are religious zealots and sectarians, usually found in
backward rural areas and tribal societies, and there are churchgoers in the
cities whose mild religious identification, like their tastes in food,
clothing, art, sports and other cultural markers are passively inherited
from their parents. Their religious beliefs often have little consequence
for their daily lives, and, where there is conflict - as in the case of
abortion or sex outside marriage, or church attendance and prayer, or their
political, scientific or literary interests - religion almost always takes a
back seat. Unlike the true believers, they don't proselytize and find it
easy to be ecumenical. At the extreme are more than a few athiest leftists
I've known who observe Christmas or Passover or Ramadan because "the rituals
are comforting" or "express a positive morality" or so "the kids" shouldn't
feel left out or excluded or cut off from their peers and their cultural
roots.
Whatever. We've never felt the need on behalf of ourselves or our son, now grown, but can see how, especially since the demise of the secular labour and socialist movement, people satisfy their natural longing for community with the one closest at hand: the ubiquitous church-synagogue-mosque centred culture they grew up with.
These folks - sympathetic to religion in theory, but secular in practice - don't represent any danger to us. They're our workmates and neighbours and frequently our friends. They reflect the attenuated historical artifact religion becomes when it is transformed by the demands of modern cosmopolitan urban society. The ignorant and intolerant and frequently murderous religious fundamentalism encountered in parts of North America and elsewhere is something else entirely, and warrants the kind of reaction being expressed in general against anyone who declares a religious affiliation.
I think this is an important distinction with consequences for how religion is perceived and its adherents approached in relation to the struggle for social change.
MG