Yang Junfeng: Issues of Scientific Atheism Within the Perspective of the Sinicization of Marxism
Sinicization of Marxism is the socio-historical process of integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with the concrete realities of China's socialist revolution and construction. Sinicized Marxism is the product of continuous practical exploration and theoretical innovation by Chinese Marxists to adapt to China's national conditions. Scientific atheism is the ideological foundation of Marxism. In the process of the Sinicization of Marxism, scientific atheism must also continuously adapt to China's specific circumstances, developing and refining itself upon the realistic foundation of China's national conditions.
I. The Basic Connotations of Marxist Atheism
Marxist atheism represents the highest form of development in atheism; it is a truly scientific and thorough atheism. The French Enlightenment and British Empiricism, and particularly German Classical Philosophy, constitute the ideological sources upon which Marxist atheism emerged. The development of modern natural sciences since the Renaissance provided the necessary technical means and empirical support for its birth. It is well known that the maturation of Marxism underwent an intellectual journey from the "critique of religion" to the "critique of politics," and finally to the "critique of economy." It can be said that atheism constitutes the cognitive starting point of Marxism, and Marxist atheism is precisely the spiritual essence of the Marxist view of religion.
Marxist atheistic thought is centrally embodied in its analysis and critique of religion. Religion is a high-level form of theistic thought. Marxism scientifically reveals the essence of religion as well as the objective laws governing its emergence, development, and disappearance. On the basis of an accurate and comprehensive evaluation of the social role of religion, it points out the basic attitudes and principles that a proletarian party should adopt toward religion.
Explaining religion through history is a fundamental viewpoint of the Marxist view of religion. Marx pointed out: "This essence [of religion] is to be looked for, not in 'the essence of man,' nor in the attributes of God, but in the real material world of each developmental stage of religion." [1] Like other social ideologies, religion is a reflection of social existence, though this reflection is illusory and distorted. "All religion, however, is nothing but the fantastic reflection in men’s minds of those external forces which control their daily life, a reflection in which the terrestrial forces assume the form of supernatural forces." [2] Religion originates neither from divine revelation nor from the "inventions of deceivers," but is a product of natural and social oppression, possessing deep natural, social, cognitive, and psychological roots.
The social role of religion is dualistic: on the one hand, in class societies, religion is often utilized by the ruling class as an effective tool to anesthetize the people and maintain its rule; on the other hand, during specific periods, religion has also served as a spiritual weapon for the oppressed classes to resist class oppression. However, generally speaking, as an illusory reflection of real existence, religion is inherently fallacious and passive. It cannot truly represent the fundamental interests of the working people, nor is it conducive to their actual struggle for liberation and happiness. Historically, religion has evolved from natural religion to artificial religion, from polytheism to monotheism, and from tribal religion to state and then world religion. With the development of productive forces and the improvement of human understanding, religion will inevitably wither away. However, this will be a long historical process, "requiring a specific social basis or a series of material conditions of existence, which are themselves the natural product of a long and painful history of development." [3] After the disappearance of class society, the realistic roots upon which religion exists will not be eliminated immediately; therefore, religion will inevitably persist for a long time. The proletarian party should earnestly implement the policy of freedom of religious belief and oppose simply and crudely "declaring war on religion," while simultaneously persisting in the propagation of atheism to guide the masses in gradually establishing a scientific worldview and outlook on life.
Marxist atheism provides us with a powerful ideological weapon for correctly viewing and handling various religious phenomena and atheistic trends. Adapting to concrete realities and conditions, and accurately implementing the guiding ideology of Marxist atheism in the practice of socialist revolution and construction to handle various real-world problems, is an important task for Marxist atheists and an opportunity to promote the development and innovation of Marxist atheism.
II. China's Socio-Cultural Background and the Characteristics of Religious Belief
Marxist atheism emerged from the cultural background of European Christianity and was gradually formed by Marxist thinkers through the critique of Christianity and the summation of experiences from the European workers' movement. In terms of socio-cultural background and patterns of religious belief, China and European countries exhibit extremely significant differences.
Similar to the nascent eras of other civilizations, China's ancient classical texts (such as the Book of Documents, the Classic of Poetry, and the I Ching) acknowledge and worship "Shangdi" [4] (the High Deity); later Chinese translations of the Bible drew upon this source to translate the Supreme Being. However, the "Shangdi" in the ancient Confucian tradition is fundamentally different from the Christian God. From the beginning, it did not communicate with humans through prophets like Moses, but manifested directly through the myriad things of heaven and earth, and particularly through the will of the people—as expressed in the saying, "Heaven sees as my people see; Heaven hears as my people hear." [5] Therefore, "High Heaven has no favorites; it only assists the virtuous." [6] Heaven decides whether to continue granting the status of ruler based on the virtue displayed by the sovereign among the people. This tradition very early on determined the "distancing of the gods and nearing of humanity" [7] thinking model of traditional Chinese culture. Scholars of the Spring and Autumn period had already proposed that "The Way of Heaven is far, while the Way of Man is near." [8] Confucius explicitly pointed out: "To apply oneself to what is right for the people, and to respect ghosts and spirits while keeping them at a distance, may be called wisdom" [9] and "While you do not know life, how can you know about death?" [10] In subsequent development, traditional Chinese culture, with Confucianism as the mainstream, consistently displayed this humanistic color of "prizing the people over the gods," profoundly influencing all social aspects from daily life to national politics, and determining the basic characteristics of the Chinese pattern of religious belief.
From "prizing the people over the gods" emerged three characteristics of the traditional Chinese pattern of religious belief:
- The state of religious belief exhibits pluralism. The indigenous humanistic belief system of Confucianism, Taoism (built on the foundation of local shamanism and ghost/spirit beliefs), and imported Buddhism—and later Islam—coexisted peacefully and even promoted one another. Despite inevitable intellectual clashes, there were no large-scale religious wars or persecutions. By the Ming and Qing dynasties at the end of traditional society, the "Unity of the Three Teachings" [11] became a conscious consensus among Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. This is almost unimaginable within the tradition of Christian monotheism.
- Religious beliefs possess a clear utilitarian character. People's worship of specific religious icons often carries a clear secular utilitarian consciousness; religious rituals and behaviors are directed toward utilitarian goals outside of the faith itself, rarely possessing the "purity" promoted in Christian faith. This further determined the indifference of traditional Chinese toward specific religious dogmas, granting different faiths a high degree of openness and providing conditions for coexistence and syncretism.
- Religious belief is subordinate to political power. Various traditional Chinese religions have always been subordinate to the imperial power, accepting its rule and dominance; they never achieved the status where clerical power stood above secular power as in medieval Europe. Even within the Confucian order, which functioned as a quasi-"state religion," the monarch firmly grasped clerical authority under the title "Son of Heaven." This ensured that the status and role of religion in traditional Chinese society was far from comparable to that of European Christianity.
Although China's socio-cultural background and religious patterns possess characteristics distinct from the West, Marxism remains our only correct ideological guide for understanding and transforming Chinese society. Marxist atheism is likewise a powerful ideological weapon for us to understand and handle the problem of religious theism in China. However, just as Marxism develops and perfects itself in the process of integrating with the realities of different countries, Marxist scientific atheism must also adapt to concrete realities and continuously undergo theoretical innovation to be truly implemented in the practice of socialist revolution and construction.
III. Experiences and Reflections on the Sinicization of Marxist Atheism
As early as the period of the Domestic Revolutionary War [12], Chinese Communists, represented by Mao Zedong, consciously applied Marxist atheistic thought to guide the democratic revolutionary practice against imperialism and feudalism. They rationally integrated the struggle against theocracy into the anti-feudal struggle while emphasizing the basic principle of freedom of religious belief. They advocated for a fundamental policy of propaganda and education and timely proposed the establishment of an anti-imperialist and anti-feudal united front led by the Communist Party, which included religious believers. After the founding of New China, while adhering to the principles of separation of church and state, and separation of politics and education, and based on the propaganda and education of scientific atheism, the Chinese Communists united the broad masses of religious believers. In response to the Western-controlled Protestant and Catholic churches, they launched the anti-imperialist patriotic movement, gradually transforming the churches into religious undertakings that were self-governing, self-propagating, and self-supporting [13] by the Chinese people. In border regions with strong religious atmospheres, they carried out vigorous democratic reform movements, fundamentally destroying the feudal system of exploitation and oppression upon which religion relied, greatly promoting the development of social productive forces and the improvement of people's living standards. Since the reform and opening up, the Party Central Committee has completely reversed the "Leftist" errors in religious work during the "Cultural Revolution." Under the premise of clarifying the fundamental atheistic position of Communists and strengthening scientific atheism education, the Party proposed to comprehensively and correctly implement the Party's religious policy, strengthen the management of religious affairs according to law, and actively guide religion to adapt to socialist society, thus opening a new chapter in religious work.
As a universal truth, Marxist atheism should and can adapt to various realistic conditions. The process of the Sinicization of Marxist atheism is precisely the process of its perfection and implementation in practice. In this process, we must first unswervingly adhere to the basic principles of Marxist atheism. Marxism must take atheism as its fundamental starting point and must distinguish itself from various religious theistic trends through a thorough atheistic stance. Here, there is no room for wavering or compromise. Second, we must handle religious and theistic issues flexibly according to China's national conditions. Based on China's socio-cultural background, traditional religious characteristics, and new developments in religious transmission, we must adopt appropriate religious management measures and atheistic propaganda methods, avoiding a "one-size-fits-all" approach. Third, Marxist atheism should continuously critique various new theistic trends and lead the direction of social ideological and cultural development. Given that the realistic basis for theism will exist for a long time, religious theistic trends will continue to refine themselves as the times develop and will emerge in various guises. Marxist atheism can only effectively respond to and critique these trends by continuously advancing with the times. Finally, Marxist atheism should construct its own positive content from the perspective of serving reality, adapting to the needs of the era of socialist modernization, providing rational answers to the question of the meaning of life, establishing a stable foundation for moral practice, and finding a rational sustainer for the value of life.