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• Q
  Good morning, I am a religious believer, and I also believe in the ideals of socialism. However, I know that Marx famously described religion as “the opium of the people.” I would therefore like to ask: Is communism inherently opposed to religion, or can a person be both religious and...
• A
  A very important question. The relationship between communism and religion is too often misunderstood and misrepresented, especially by those who reduce Marxism to a crude, mechanical dogma. Our philosophical foundation is dialectical and historical materialism, which understands the material world as the basis of all development, including the development of ideas. Religious consciousness, like all forms of consciousness, arises from specific historical and social conditions. It is a product of humanity’s attempt to understand and cope with a world not under our control.  Lenin upheld the Marxist position that religion functions as “opium of the people” but he did so not in the sense of a mere illusion to be mocked, but as a treatment for a symptom of real...