I've been struggling for a while to reconcile my faith (Islam) with communism. I've run into a lot of leftists who tell me flat out that you can't be religious and a Marxist. They quote Lenin, Bukharin, and the ABC of Communism to argue that religion is 'idealist' and that any believing communist is a 'revisionist.'
But recently, someone on this platform responded to one of my posts with something that really stuck with me. They suggested that the leftists I've been arguing with might be confusing mechanical materialism with dialectical materialism. They put it this way:
'A dialectical materialist view would say that somebody receiving a message from a god is part of their material conditions... either way, it's still a real thing impacting them.'
They argued that a mechanical materialist treats humans like passive objects, reduces consciousness to brain chemistry, and sees religion as just 'false consciousness' to be eliminated. A dialectical materialist, by contrast, understands that consciousness is real, that ideas emerge from material conditions and then react back on them, and that religion is a complex phenomenon that can be a force for resistance or oppression depending on the context.
This really resonated with me, but I want to understand it more deeply.
So I want to ask you all:
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In your own words, what is the difference between mechanical and dialectical materialism?
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How does dialectical materialism approach the question of religion, compared to mechanical materialism?
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Does dialectical materialism require atheism as a philosophical commitment, or is it compatible with someone who holds religious faith as a personal and communal practice so as long as they don't use their faith as their analytical tool or basis for an argument?
Those people that claim you cannot be religious and communist are missing the point and if you think about it reasonably kinda dooming the revolution in the global south, which is overwhelmingly religious, if you read the selected works of Mao in his speeches he would mobilize the religious beliefs of people, in a questioning manner but not as to attack the people but to challenge some parts of it, but that in itself shows that the people following Mao were religios at least part of them, and that was not a problem in itself, the exploitation that organized religion enacts on people is, so if your faith helps you go through life, and if you have your heart and mind in the idea of changing the world to one where there is si much less senseless suffering of people, my friend any Communist organization worth their salt would be lucky to have you, be a friend of the people and you'll be a good Communist. Just some last points that i think are somewhat obvious for you but I would avoid using religious arguments into the agitation and propaganda campaigns if you end up on such tasks of an organization, even when talking to people that share your faith, once it might give the idea that the organization has religous bases or encourages religiosity, which I don't think is usually the case, even if an organization has no problem with members being religious(which I think is the correct position) it wont be something reccomended
I appreciate your response, it makes me feel better about myself.
I'm very interested in those selected works of Mao and his speeches you bought up, is there a name for these works?
Its the collection selected works of Mao, tome 1, I don't remember the section, but what he said was something like, people believed that where your ancestors were buried determined the luck of a person, and that was used to legitimize the local oppressive leadership rule. Then when they overthrew them Mao said something what happened did their ancestors changed graves? Did the gods changed their mind, no it is you that make your own destiny.
It was something clashing a bit with the uses of oppression of the religion but not mocking or ridicularized for being religious, and there is other one saying that is not our job to take religion out of people, that movement comes from the people if they see they do not need that belief anymore or if they come to see that they are being oppressed by religion, at any rate there is no rejection of religious people and it is quite clearly implied that a considerable number of the revolutionary force will be religious. So I will say there is a direction away from relegion on Marxism, there is no denying that, but from that should follow the rejection of a religious person, if your beliefs do not clash with revolution, and you do not preach during the actions of your organization, you can be at peace and keep your beliefs for as long as you see fit, your actions and your dedication for revolution is what matters