> I think a problem here may be in people's differing definitions of
> religion. I take it to mean something like the unity of the following three:
>
> 1. belief that something exists outside of experience and outside of
> possible conceptualization (this is very bad phraseology on my part, but I
> hope you get the general idea);
>
> 2. belief that relating to this something is important in some way for
> human existence;
>
> 3. a conceptual system, whether simple or complex, whether formally
> organized or not, for relating human existence to that something.
>
> (Marx is only religious in this sense if one interprets Communism as this
> something.)
>
> --- On Thu, 11/20/08, Philp Pilkington <pilkingtonphil at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> >
> > Oh yeah, and I quoted Hamann above. A quick glance at his
> > bio indicates that
> > he probably wasn't exactly a good Christian in the
> > dogmatic sense of the
> > term:
> >
> > "During this time, despite his committed Christianity,
> > he lived with a woman
> > whom he never married but to whom he remained devoted and
> > faithful, having
> > four children on whom he doted, and who occasionally
> > feature in his writings
> > (principally as unruly distractions to the author's
> > scholarship)."
> > ___________________________________
> > http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
>
>
> ___________________________________
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>
I still don't think that you can equate Marx with being religious because there's overarching theological themes in his work. As I pointed out earlier you'll find these themes have a strong presence in all of the humanities, be they Marxist or otherwise. Even attempts to purge the humanities of all "metaphysical/theological" elements, as in deconstruction, only really ends up by mimicking a sort of negative theology which has been around as long as Christianity.
This is what I was getting at when I said earlier that the worship of logic and supposed rationality was just as easy as religious worship and had many of the same effects - the footholds are still in place, its simply a question of if people want to use them or not...