this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2025
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What's your opinion on religion? (lemmygrad.ml)
submitted 1 month ago by WilliamA@lemmygrad.ml to c/asklemmygrad@lemmygrad.ml
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[–] haui@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Beautifully put imho.

I became an atheist before but i can see how the primary threat is and will always be imperialism and not religion. It is used by imperialists in all possible directions.

The more sinister point from an on the ground perspective is that religion can help people who struggle to survive but is also stripped of any anti imperialist sentiment, especially in the west.

I would like to learn more about its DM point of view. Do you have a recommendation what to read to get a good entrypoint to analyse the contradictions from a more theoretical point?

[–] darkernations@lemmygrad.ml 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Thank you, I am "re-learning" DM myself:

https://lemmygrad.ml/post/9855623/7353553

Dialectical materialism = a way of analysis that focuses on contradictions as engines driving change in a given direction to produce a deeper science. Dialetics allows us to understand relationships and materialism grounds it in reality. It is teleological, not positivist and is the enemy of idealism.

^That’s the quickest summary of DM I can think of so far and I wonder what I will change from that definition years into the future.

(You highlighted an important need for marxists to deeply understand theory and therefore I am revisiting what I have learned about DM starting with Stalin’s famous essay then dashthered’s essay then Losurdo’s book on Hegel and Freedom of the Moderns. Previously I started with Politzer’s Elementary Principles of Philosophy and then a bunch of Redsails.org articles. The latter two are really good resources but I want to try a fresh approach here)

But to better answer your question the authors/topics that came top of my head was Roland Boer, Samir Amin and liberation theology, so I did mini-research to make a reading list which I will be also adding to my own pile:

  • Roland Boer - Red Theology, on the Communist Christian Tradition
  • Samir Amin - A life looking forward
  • Liberation Theology - Gustavo Gutierrez
  • Religious Factor - Jose Carlos

(Addendum - I am an athiest myself but wanted to read around the topic you mentioned. I can't pinpoint sources for the opinions I have so chances it will become hopefully more refined with time)

[–] haui@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

An absolute banger of an answer! This goes into my saved posts! Thank you very much, comrade! I always love to get educated by comrades. :)

[–] darkernations@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I completely forgot the Indian experience, so here's some more to my pile:

  • DD Kosambi (polymath marxist historian): (1) Intro to study of indian history, (2) Myth and Reality
  • EMS - Mahatma and the Ism
  • KN Pannikkar - Against Lord and State

Western Hemisphere:

  • Du Bois - Souls of Black folk
  • CLR James - Black Jacobins (this one detailing the Haitian Revolution is going to be even more relevant given recent events)
  • Claudia Jones - End to the Neglect (this list is a good/bad example of the lack of inclusion of women - we should include more but on a quick search this is all I could find on the cross section of marxism and religion. There will be undoubtedly be way more)

Pan-africanists:

  • Cabral - Return to Source, and Weapon of Theory (that last title is awesome)
  • Walter Rodney - How Europe Underdeveloped Africa