Religion: God speaks for Capitalism

In all the ages and stages of man’s past the idea of a god has been of powerful significance. Always the gods were credited with real physical existence. They were felt to be present in’ the midst of all that went on, exerting some mysterious influence.

The conception of what a god is like has varied, but it is plain that men created the gods, including the god of the Christian church, in their own image. There are exceptions such as the sun and other objects, but always these were imbued with the spirit, mind and consciousness of a man. They always reflected man’s doubts, fears and passions, his ignorance of the origin of natural forces. They reflected, and still reflect, man as a social animal at changing levels of development contrasted with nature and the means of production.

As the means of production developed, changes took place in the structure of society. New social conditions and relationships came into existence. With each change, reflecting man’s needs in society, the god was called upon to sanction changes in morality and social conduct. Things which at one stage were holy, moral, legal and “eternal”, were at another just the opposite.

Today’s god has to sanction wage-slavery and H-bombs because capitalism is the established social order. Despite all its viciousness and evils, the few gods that are left speak for capitalism, in the voice of the ruling-class. The gods are capitalism’s ventriloquist dolls.

Tribal Custom
On practically every issue the believers themselves are divided. Some religious leaders are for the Bomb, some are against it. Some are pacifist, some war supporters, and so on. Is it that god whispers different and contradictory messages in their ears, or is it that having decided what they want to do they each claim divine guidance afterwards?

In the past, the gods had an existence in a spirit world but the manifestations of the gods were, to the faithful, very concrete and tangible. They were an integral part of tribal life and custom. It is a different matter today.

The dead weight of past superstition and ignorance has hampered and obstructed a more rational and scientific understanding of things. The battle between science and theological cant has been hard and up-hill. It has not always been fought out in the open, for the social pressures of widespread prejudice affect men of science as much as anyone else.

The fate which is overtaking religion and which is causing the self-appointed men of god such alarm, will overtake the whole of the capitalist system sooner or later. That this fate is not understood by the popes and bishops, etc., can be seen by the fact that they attribute it to any but the correct cause.

Productive Forces
It is something which only the materialist can satisfactorily explain. The social productive activities of man at a primitive level provide the conditions for the birth of gods. The further development of the productive forces has provided the conditions for their disappearance.

In all past stages the ceremonies, rites and rituals carried out by the priests were regarded as a direct contact with the deity. When the Christian prayed, although it was a one-sided conversation, he was talking to god. Today these things are done largely as a token performance of tradition. The motions are gone through and the holy mumbo-jumbo is muttered, but the facts of life in society make it more and more difficult to believe.

All this is not to say that religion is finished. There is one remaining condition to be fulfilled before the gods are finally consigned to the past. The ruling class still find god a handy instrument of oppression. There are still many places like Spain, Ireland and Malta where the catholic church is able to exercise tyrannical power.

The Socialist has always seen in religion an obstacle in the way of the working class. God may serve the capitalist interest, but he is a menace to the clear thought and action of the workers. The tyrants of the church can only flourish upon ignorance and fear. As the workers gain an understanding of their class position and their desire for Socialism spreads, those henchmen of capital will be cast aside and ignored.

It is a noteworthy fact that the pulpit no longer suffices for the head-fixing operators. They have long since had to have recourse to the press, radio and television. In order to retain some kind of blurred image in the working class mind, the sky-pilots have to keep up a seven days a week barrage. They are now thinking of joining the jingo chanters of commercial television. In between commercials urging us to use Smith’s toothpaste and Brown’s eye-wash, we may soon hear the slogan, “Come to Jesus, son of lightness and brightness.”

Christians have even stooped to putting a mock debate on television, with one Christian posing as Marx in order to make it easy for his colleague to knock his argument down. We would prefer to see a real debate on Marxism, but they will, of course, prefer their cut-and-dried questions, asked and answered by themselves. In the modern world the more the church finds it necessary to explain god, the vaguer he becomes—and the vaguer he becomes, the greater the need to explain. This is the desperate situation they are in. Modern science has made god so intangible and unintelligible that his non-existence is becoming self-evident. All that is left is the shell. The book of words, the conflicting interpretations still linger but the hero of the piece has been whittled away.

Humbug
To the believer, his is the “one true god,” but if he rejects the Socialist’s explanation of the origin of the gods, how does he explain the existence (past and present) of all the “false” gods? If he accepts that, our explanation applies to them, could it not just as reasonably apply to his god as well? Of course, his god is false to those who believe in the others.

All the self-righteous humbug of Christianity in posing as the sole custodian of moral principles and eternal truth has failed to stand the tests to which capitalism has subjected it. To talk of loving thy neighbour in one breath, and defend mass-murder in the next gives the game away.

A moral code which heaps condemnation upon petty violence in the streets whilst it blesses a society based upon international violence and plunder can only reap the contempt it deserves. To the Christians, their god remains very much a mystery, whose ways are strange. The materialist sees no mystery. He can explain god through society.

When the working-class decide to use the earth’s resources for the benefit of all by establishing Socialism, they will have changed society. Mature mankind will then have one purpose. Not the working out of some divine plan but the production of things for use with a full and satisfying life for everybody.
H. B.