Religion is an integral part of the identity and culture of any human society; a natural byproduct of a community that arises from the specific social conditions attained by human civilization and also an inherent extension of our own imaginative capabilities, general curiosity, and longing for purpose.

On its own religion arises & develops naturally and, if left alone, is ultimately harmless in and of itself.

The worst examples of religion we think of all stem from a common source: the deliberate interference in religious practices & teachings by authorities seeking to weaponize faith as a method of public control. From here develops clericalism and dogma to further those aims through class warfare by the priestly class against the laity leading to inquisitions, crusades, excommunications, human sacrifice, witch trials, and similar atrocities to cement the clergy’s temporal authority in the absence of actual divine anointment.

Anti-theism is an overreaction to this phenomenon in much the same way technophobia & primitivism is an overreaction to industrialization & technological advancement.

Atheism is a bourgeois invention that exploits the principles of rationalism to facilitate the further deconstruction of human culture, morality, and community - all of which interact directly with and are influenced religion - in order to further reduce people into simple workers & consumers by annihilating their humanity.

Secularism is a product of capitalism falsely advertised as a kind of neutrality but in fact simply enforces atheism as the default. Instead of dismantling theocracy it replaces it with corporations instead of churches, oligarchs in place of preachers, legalism instead of dogma, the state in place of god, prison in place of hell, wealth instead of paradise.

Religion is here to stay. It exists under socialism, will exist under communism, and will persist into whatever comes afterwards. It is as much a part of human culture as music, poetry, and other kinds of art.

Gramsci talked a lot about how communists should try to emulate the Catholic churches structural reach - we should be doing what the church does for the working class - provide community, provide a 3rd space, charity and outreach work, mass events, teaching and reading and such.

I think we can learn a lot from how religion organizes.

Im personally agnostic and respect most moderates religious beliefs, although I remain spectical I wouldn’t shut someone out or refuse to work with anyone who was religious.

Crudely:

• religious westerners of any colour: those other countries deserve to be bombed because they are the wrong religion
• athiest westerners of any colour: those other countries deserve to be bombed because they are they are backwards due to religion
• western secularism came from Islam (Ibn Rushd) and then re-appropriated by the west as one of its many masks of the dictatorship of capital
• religion will sow the seeds of its own destruction and our first global contradiction is imperialism, and it is in anti-imperialism we find solidarity
• having said that any communist party cannot be religious but a dictatorship against capital may not necessarily be “athiest”
• dialectical materialism will lead towards athiesm but if you are religious it may not be in your lifetime, depending on your material conditions, and that’s OK. Dialectical materialists are a spectrum (see all the folks Marx learned from and criticised to help formulate his DM)
• the reaction of religion is a fine needle to thread when attempting to build solidarity and a vanguard when fighting imperialists