Enda80

Did Stalin or Marx ever explicitly say they held no belief in a god? Jim Walker asked me this. Keep in mind that the conflict with organized religion does not establish atheism, as Robespierre believed in a god (Cult of the Supreme Being) but rejected conventional organized religion.

Sarpedon

Yes, why he was at seminary, as a lad, Stalin said to a fellow student "There is no god, they are deceiving us." This is found in an excellent biography called "Stalin" which was printed maybe ten years ago or something.

Enda80

Sounds a bit anecdotal and second hand, however.

I have looked for admissions of atheism from Stalin's and Karl Marx's writings but, so far, I have not found it. The closest I could find about Marx comes from his admission that he was a 'secularist' (but many religious believers also hold to secularism, at least in government).

If you find any first-hand sources to the above, let me know.

sourdough

I think you need to look for someone like a history teacher from Russia (or is it Soviet union),they should know.

Jobar

"Since only what is material is perceptible, knowable, nothing is known of the existence of God."

"The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion."
Karl Marx

blues runner

Well, based on the above quotes, as well as "Religion is the opiate of the masses," I think it's safe to conclude Mr. Marx wasn't much of a theist. He wasn't much of a responsible family guy either, as for a great portion of his adult years as a husband and father he had his family living in a shit-hole of a home while he was off writing. I think Engels actually financed his woman and kids for a while.

As far as Stalin goes...truly a monster. A 25,000,000 conservative estimate genocide? Verily a sadist and much more...

Kosh3

Well, Marx believed that the mind arose as a product of material causes; he certainly was a materalist, and with the material dialectic (although he never called it that) he believed that even ideas themselves arose from material socio-economic conditions.

If he did believe in god, that would be very strange.

Andrei

Marx's views on religion are best expressed in the Introduction to his "Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right", that's where the "opiate of the people" comes from. Here is a quote:

"Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo."

Full text can be found here:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx...-hpr/index.htm

Huon

Letter from Marx to Arnold Ruge (November 30, 1842) :
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx...s/42_11_30.htm
<quote>
I requested further that religion should be criticised in the framework of criticism of political conditions rather than that political conditions should be criticised in the framework of religion, since this is more in accord with the nature of a newspaper and the educational level of the reading public; 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. Finally, I desired 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. Voila tout.
<end quote>
Voila tout. = That's all. Bold characters = my emphasis.

Hello, Andrei !

Huon

The problem of god or no-god is of little importance to Marx. An atheist does not fight god ! Anti-theists may do so (but they will always lose their fight, since God is more powerful than an ordinary or extraordinary person). The political problem of Marx was religion.