Atheism, Class, and the Ghost of Karl Marx

chapter 3 Atheism, Class, and the Ghost of Karl Marx

Richard Cimino and Christopher Smith

It is more than a curiosity that at a time when atheist polemics and self- expression are on the rise (though not necessarily atheism itself), the tradi- tional atheist critique against religion has largely been eclipsed. The class- and economic-based atheist critique targeting religion as pertipetuating a state of false consciousness that impeded social justice and equality was a hallmark of Marxist and radical theories. But in contemporary atheist discourse, science and rationality have increasingly gained primacy among its leaders and intel- lectual elite. How did the older atheist critique against religion lose its traction among atheists and what has replaced it? In this chapter, we are especially interested in the question of how class- based interests (in this case the upper-middle class) may have shaped contemporary atheist identity and worldviews. To understand this, we will focus on how atheist leaders (the cultural elite) as well as atheists who are affiliated with secularist organizations view such issues as class, socialism, and capitalism. Through conducting a survey of participants in atheist and secular human- ist organizations as well as textual analysis of secularist publications and web sites, we hope to show how the shift in attitudes and discourse on economics and capitalism has reshaped American secularism.

Atheist Beginnings and the Beginning of the Atheist Critique of Religion

While atheists have always existed alongside (and even within) organized religion, it was only since the Enlightenment that a visible atheist movement, institutions and publications emerged. The growth of science was an impor- tant part of the Enlightenment atheist critique, starting with Comte’s attack on religion, stating that it was a backward force that would be extinguished as scientific explanations of reality replaced supernatural ones. For Comte, who was a strong supporter of philosophical positivism, the work of social science was to build upon and utilize the methods of natural science in an attempt to reengineer society on a scientific basis. Incidentally, Comte believed that posi- tive philosophy would eventually evolve into the Religion of Humanity, which would function to meet the continuing needs that religion had fulfilled in the

Atheism, Class, and the Ghost of Karl Marx 37 past without the supernatural trappings. This idea – a precursor of sorts to the atheist “church” movement of today – was not well received in all circles but did find some traction within the various freethought fraternities and organizations that came to prominence in the last half of the twentieth century. The Marxist critique of religion can be traced back to the philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach. In The Essence of Christianity (1989), Feuerbach develops the idea that God does not have an existence independent of humans; God is ultimately the outward projection of humanity’s inward nature. Following Feuerbach, Marx saw religion as an ideology for the perpetuation of the status quo that works to dampen any desire for social change in promising justice in the afterlife. The link between this critique and contemporary atheist thought arrived via humanistic atheists. Like humanists, both of these thinkers viewed religion broadly, as both a psychological (Feuerbach) and social (Marx) phe- nomenon that simultaneously corresponds with and responds to the human condition. As Marx stated in a letter he wrote to German philosopher Arnold Ruge in 1842:

Religion should be criticized in the framework of criticism of political conditions rather than that political conditions should be criticized in the framework of religion … for religion in itself is without content, it owes its being not to heaven but to the earth, and with the abolition of distorted reality, of which it is the theory, it will collapse of itself. marx 1975, found in Marx Engels Collected Works Vol 1

He concluded his letter arguing that,

If there is to be talk about philosophy, there should be less trifling with the label ‘atheism’ (which reminds one of children, assuring everyone who is ready to listen to them that they are not afraid of the bogy man), and that instead the content of philosophy should be brought to the people. marx 1975

In this view religious beliefs and practices are rooted in human experience that in turn play a legitimizing function. Thus, the vicious circle of subjugation brought by religion cannot be broken by rational critique or a change in consciousness alone insofar as it does nothing to address and change the material, social foundations and reorganize society, i.e. the need for religion. If we are to take Marx seriously, this point cannot be overstated: it is to ham- mer home the fundamental fact that our “mental life” is not something predes- tined or static, nor is it the sum and substance of “reality.” It is an activity like