>Let this be a helpful reminder:
>http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1909/may/13.htm
[...]
>eliminating the social roots of religion. 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
This diatribe is almost incomprehensible, from which I conclude that the author doesn't really grasp the historical materialist roots of religion.
In a way it *is* the ignorance of the people which is the root of religion though. Yet it is precisely this which makes religion one of the great social technologies of humankind. As a system for transmitting the knowledge and culture of a society from generation to generation, under conditions of dire poverty and ignorance, religion has proved itself for thousands of years. Of course the specific myths of specific religions will correspond to the specific material conditions and means of production. So the way to eliminate religion is simply to eliminate the material basis for it, the ignorance and poverty make makes religion the only viable way to pass on the knowledge and culture of society from generation to generation.
But the point is that until then, religion must be respected as performing a role which is not only positive, but essential. It is childish to talk about eliminating religion when the material conditions which make it necessary still exist.
I'm fairly sure the Catholic church understands this particular implication of historical materialism better than most people who consider themselves Marxists. So any noises the leadership of the Catholic church make against poverty can either be read as a desire to see the church dissolve away or else as crocodile tears for the poor, who must always be with us else we, the church, will cease to exist.
I know which explanation I favour. Stinking hypocrites. Still, a Jesuit as pope! What would Eugene Sue make of that! ;-)
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas