Part 9 (1/2)

COMMUNISM AND CHRISTIANISM

a.n.a.lYZED AND CONTRASTED FROM THE MARXIAN AND DARWINIAN POINTS OF VIEW

PART II.

Christianism: A Supernaturalistic Other-worldly Gospel for the Pa.s.sing Age of Cla.s.s Inequality and Economic Slavery--An Open Letter to a Christian Theologian and Brother Churchman.

Revolutionize capitalism out of state and orthodoxy out of church.

FOREWORD[G]

The contradiction in terms known as the Christian Socialist is inevitably antagonistic to working-cla.s.s interests and the waging of the cla.s.s struggle. His policy (that of the Christian Socialist) is the conciliation of cla.s.ses, the fraternity of robber and robbed, not the end of cla.s.ses. His avowed object, indeed, is usually to purge the Socialist movement of its materialism, and this means to purge it of its Socialism and to divert it from its material aims to the fruitless chasing of spiritual will-o'-the-wisps. A Christian Socialist is, in fact, an anti-Socialist.

Clearly, then, the basis of Socialist philosophy is utterly incompatible with religious ideas; indeed, the latter have been reduced to their logical absurdity in what is called ”Christian Science.”

Moreover, the consistent Christian, if such exists, could look upon the existing world only as an essential part of G.o.d's plan, to be accounted for only through G.o.d, and modified at G.o.d's pleasure. He could regard those who sought the explanation of social conditions in purely natural causes, and who also sought to take advantage of economic development in order to turn this vale of tears into a pleasant garden, only as men who denied by their acts the very basis of his faith.

FOOTNOTES:

[G] From the Official Manifes...o...b.. the Socialist Party of Great Britain, showing the Antagonism between Socialism and Religion.

CHRISTIANISM: A SUPERNATURALISTIC OTHER-WORLDLY GOSPEL FOR THE Pa.s.sING AGE OF CLa.s.s INEQUALITY AND ECONOMIC SLAVERY.

Come over and help us. Abandon Reformatory for Revolutionary Socialism.

My Dear Brother:

Your letter (April 1st, 1920) enclosing an essay, ent.i.tled, Is There a G.o.d, came duly to hand and I thank you warmly for it. The essay is a masterpiece and I hope you can let me keep this copy, or make another for myself, for reference when I am writing or conversing on its lines, as is frequently the case.

I.

In the dispute between yourself and friend of which you speak, you are altogether right and he is entirely wrong. In the last a.n.a.lysis it is a disputation as to whether or not the Jewish-Christian bible contains an infallible revelation from an omniscient being, a triune G.o.d, Father, Son and Spirit. It does not.

As an objectivity there is no such divinity. He is a subjectivity existing in the imagination of orthodox Christians. You do not agree with me in this, but every day of thought and study deepens the conviction that it is true. None among the G.o.ds of the supernaturalistic interpretations of religion are objectivities. The lesser ones are generally ghosts of dead men, and the greater ones are as generally versions of the sun-myth.

The one G.o.d of the Jews and the triune G.o.d of the Christians, if taken seriously, are superst.i.tions; and the bible revelations of their willings and records of their doings, if taken literally, are lies.

Both the Old and New Testaments are utterly worthless as history. The twelve patriarchs of the Jewish G.o.d, Jehovah, are not historical personages, but myths, and this is true of the twelve apostles of the Christian G.o.d, Jesus.

Yes, the Old Testament is the Jewish version of the immemorial and universal sun-myth, rewritten several times for the purpose, not of telling any truth, but of imposing the fiction that Jehovah and his people const.i.tute the greatest procession that ever came down the pike of supernaturalism. The New Testament is the Christian version of the same myth, only with the view of showing that Jehovah and the Jews were not, but Jesus and Christians are, this procession.

In itself, the sun-myth, as symbolism, is not only poetically beautiful, but also scientifically true; yet, as literalism, it is in the case of the ignorant, superst.i.tion, and in the case of the educated, self-deception.