RELIGIOUS PREJUDICE - - ENEMY OF SCIENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-03362A001600090004-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 16, 2001
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: August 10, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

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Stencil No. 44
RELIGIOUS PREJUDICE - - ENEMY OF SCIENCE
No ideas are, so incompatible as those of science and religion.:..
Scientific and religious id as are basic opposites and irreconcilable
enemies. Comrade Stcl- n says', .. ro2.tgious prejudices are against. sciences
because in some form every religion is the antithesis of science.
Science evolved from the battle against nature, the practical
necessities of human society, and the process of human labor. Since
prehistoric times the requirements of animal husbandry, agriculture,-and,
river valley irrigation, gave rise to astronomy and mathematics.
T'e development of productive'forces constantly demands and is
itself'the basis of progress in physics, chemistry, botany, zoology,
and other branches of knowledge. Science, which boldly penetrates into.,
the essence of'the most complex phenowenos-, is based on the study of nature
and society and not upon blind faith..
Religion, however, repudiates experience and,ovidence. Religion,
since it serves the interests of the'exp1oiting classes,..pervertedly explains
the world around us, casts humanity backward, and sentences it toimpotence
before'the' forces of nature and to helplessness in the face of its oppressors.
Religion is not interested in scientific progress, since each discovery
deals It a blow,
In a class society religion is the prop of'the ruling classes.
In a class society the roots of religion are chiefly social; the impotenae
of the exploited in their struggle against their exploiters is largely
illusory. The masses in their bondage seek solace and forgetfulness in
religion, as if it were opium. Religion inculcates in the workers passivity,
humility, resignation to their fate, and patience, and diverts them from ,.
battling their oppressors, and also froth fighting for real happiness on
earth,
V.I. Lenin in his article "Social 'ism and Religion" gave a classic
definition of religion and its social basis; "Religion is one form of
spiritual oppression, always and everywhere lying heavily upon the masses,
who are depressed by,the unending drudgery for others, by dire poverty.,,
and their loneliness. The helplessness of the exploited classes in their'.
struggle against their exploiters inevitably gives rise to faith-in a
better life hereafter, just as the impotence of'tho savage in his struggle
against nature gives rise to a faith ih'gods, devils, miracles, and similar;
things. Religion is the opium of the people,"
The exploiting classes use. religion for the spiritual domination
of the workers; in capitalistic countries they complete the economic-end
political subjugation of the people and do not 'dar?,o pare- expense to..spread
religious obscurantism and mysticism. In the' USA there are more-than,100,000
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Reli *i.ous Prejudice
fortune-tellers and clairvoyants. The kind of bigotry with which they
confuse people's minds there may be seen, for example, from the fact that
lectures are given there quite openly on such subjects as "Description
of the Yeavoniy Inhabitants", "religious Life of the Modes", and "Why
There Is No Sorrow in Heaven", while at the same time lectures on Darwinism
are forbidden in more than 20 states.
To what lengths the representatives of rotting bourgeois culture:
will go in confusing minds is indicated by the following instance: during
a public discussion at Brussels University on the theme "Does Hell Exist?"
various speakers who had come to the discussion argued the existence of
hell, complete with devils and Satan. A professor of psycholoe,y, Vatlo,
in his talk stated that hell oxists, that lately he personally had visited.
with the spirit of a dead Brussels banker who was in hell and who cried
"I:am burning constantly and yet I cannot burn up."'
Every religion proclaims the division of the world into the
material world which is real, and the world of the spirit, which is
supernatural. No matter what religion we examine, each one necessarily,
IOWA the recognition that the basis of all phenomena is a special,
supernatural power--God, and that this supernatural'1power exists as it
were beyond nature and not only directs nature acid human society but
originally was their Creator,
The. supernatural world, invisible and unknowable, is the subject
of religious faith; according to religious thought it will exist forever;
whereas the material world, nature, which was created at Gcidts command from
nothing, is transitory. The admission that God.created the world is the
basic dogma of every religion. Religion teaches man to believe blindly,
not to find out and investigate. Religion has always used for its own ends
the complex, obscure phenomena of nature, and it has urged the faithful
to pray to God to set aside or change the laws of nature and perform a
miracle,
Materialistic science does not recognize anything which is
imperceptible by the senses, It is based on the recognition of the objec-
tivity of the material world and draws its conclusions on the basis of
experience and practice, not faith. Only thus it is-possible really to
know the world, forecast future events, influence the forces of nature,
arid'make them servants of man.
For many centuries materialistic philosophical materialism has
been able to reveal.fully the anti-scientific, reactionary nature of
idealistic and religious ideas. The pinnacle of development of scientific
thought--dialectical materialism is the scientific method of knowing
and modifying nature and society. Dialectical materialism Wan implacable
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Reli ious Prejudice
enemy of the religious idea of the world and of idealistic philosophy.
Idealistic philosophy always has been the theoretical basis of
religion, Idealism and religion are identical in their asservation that,
the spirit is prior to the mind, whip; the material world and objects around
us are secondary and products of the mind. The difference between idealistic
philosophy and clericalism lies only in terminology. Lenin taught:
"Philosophy which teaches that physical nature itself is something secondary,
ins the purest clericalism."
Dialectical materialism repudiates idealisitc and religious
fabrications as anti-scientific and reactionary, startinr' frrm the premise
that the basis of the entire world ground us consists in matter, or nature.
All things in nature, from a simple grain of sand to the sun, from the
tiniest particle of living matter to the most highly developed product
of nature, the human brain, are merely different forms of the same matter.
Religion is based on the concept that forces exist in the world
which cannot be comprehended by the human understanding, A consequence
of this is the avowal that everything on earth is directed by the will of
God. Religion degrades science, knowledge, and the human mind. Dialectical
materialism teaches that there is nothing incomprehensible on earth, but
only things which have not as yet become known, but will be clarified
and known in the future through the forces of scienco-and experience. In
the indissoluble union of science and experience, man's mental horizon
widens, and his powers ever the forces of nature as well as his control over
social relations increases.
The bitter and relentless struggle between science and religion
appears throughout the history of the human race. Religion has always boon
the weapon of reaction. Materialistic science serves the interest of the
progressive elements in human society and facilitates their steady evolution.
Throughout the course of history, science has cleared the way and revealed
and defended each scientific truth in a fierce battle with religion. All
great sceintific dicoveries, without which the successes of industry,,
agriculture, and culture would not have been possible, were confirmed in
the relentless conflict with religion.
The doctrine of the great Polish scientist, Copernicus, that the
earth is not-the immovable center but one of the planets, revolving around
the sun, changed the basic human concept of the universe, also shook the
religious structure to its very foundations. Darwin's teaching that the
entire organic world, including man, resulted from milleniums of evolution,
put an end to the idea that organisms were created by a God and are. unchangeable.
The history of Russian science gives many clear examples of the scientist's
war against reactionary, idonlisitc theories and religious dogmas,
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The great son of the Russian people, M. V. Lomonosov, long before
Lavoisier, discovered the. law of preservation of matter, from which law
follows the deduction that all phenomena of nature are ba.sical:ly, m:n.terial
and that matter is indestructible. In jcionce and in t1ie groa h of education,
Lomonosov saw the power which could overcome religious prejudices.
I.I. Mechnikov and I.M. Sec,henov dealt heavy blows to idealism,,
mysticism, and clericalism. An intrepid fighter against idealism and
religion was K.A. Timiryaaev. His self-sacrificing strugglo for materialism,
against mysticism, forms one of the most glorious pages of Russian, science.
Soviet scientists are the legitimate heirs of the best traditions
of progressive science. Armed with dialectical and historical materialism
they develop creatively and advance all branches of science for the benefit
of the people and the glory of their socialist homeland. Soviet scionce.
is fighting'actively against idealism and religious obsurtism.
Tho greatest contribution to materialistic biology was I.P.
Pavlov's doctri e, Pavolov's teaching on the highei: nerve activity opened
up a now page in the knowledge of the physiology of the brain, the material
basis of the psychological life of man.
Pavlov's theories originated and developed during.a..firece conflict
with idealism, obscurantism,'a.nd,the destructive ideas of bourgeois science,
Reactionary American and British physiologists are trying to prove that
thought, consciousness, and the psychological activity of humans are
manifestations of an immaterial, eternal, and unalterable spirit.
I.V. Michurin, the founde:r`of contemporary matorialis.tc biology,
developed the harmonious doctrine about the directions and manner of changes
in the nature of plo.nts and developed the control oftheir evolutions in
the interests of mankind. Michurin's biology in itself means a new era
in the development of biolo y.
Michurin's biology originated from the materialistic concept
of organism in an indissoluble union with its environment; it also..
acknowledges that new characteristics and properties which the organisms
acquire tinder the influence of their environment are inherited. Reactionary
idealistic biology, Weismann-Morganism, which maintains that living
conditions have no effect whatsoever on the inherited characterisites of
organisms, and defends the idoa. thrt originally God created the various,
plant and'animal fords, stems from directly op.nosite principles.. Michurin's
teaching was developed further in the'works of T.D. Lysenko, O.B. Leposhiiskiy,
and others,
On the basis of progressive Soviet science and.first-class technique,
the peoples. of the?USSR'are'undertaking a powerful attack on nature.; they
subdue and conquer the elements which for.milleniurns ruled over man.
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V.I. Lenin's Volga-Don Canal is the embodiment of the outstanding successes
of the Soviet economy and science.
In a period when the Soviet land. with its progressive science
and technique, is solving the enormous tasks of building cam uxA~sm, the
raging camp of imperialistic reaction, with the USA at its head, is rallying
all the resources of bourgeois science to the struggle against peace,
democracy, and socialism. It is dragging out the worn-out weapons of
obscurantism and clericalism. Soviet scientists are fighting successfully
against perverted bourgeois ideology in all its aspects. They are helping
the party of Lenin and Stalin to educate the workers and the youth in the
spirit of Communism and to remove the vestiges of capitalism, including
religious superstition, remaining in the minds of the Soviet people,
In a socialist societyy--whero the exploitation of man by man has
been abolished, whore the communal ownership of productive resources
prevails, and the national economy is conducted according to plan, conditions
exist fore the complete conquest of religion.
In Soviet society the social roots of rglig*ion are destroyed,
but it would be incorrect to think that religious faith and prejudices
will vanish by themselves. That remnants of capitalism do exist in the
minds of the people is borne out by the fact that social consciousness
remins far behind the evolution of communal life. People do not change their
minds as soon as there is a change fundamentally. Besides this it is
necessary to consider that capitalisitc encirclement, hostile to us, endeavors
to support and revive the remnants of capitalism in the minds of the people.
Religion, even in Soviet society, remains an,anti-scientific,
reactionary ideology, which litters the minds of the faithful. with incorrect,
fraudulent ideas in regard to the world about them, and is an obstacle to
their cultural and political development, Whereas Marxist-Leninist ideology
fosters in the Soviet man everything now and progressive, religion teaches
him to bow down before the old, the outworn. Complete freedom of conscience
exists in the USSR. It is so stated in Stalin's consitution. The conflict
against religion in the Soviet Union is not conducted by persecution of it,
but by the propaganda of scientific facts and of the materialistic concept
of the world.
The constitution of th3 VLKSM requires from each Komsomol member
ar active struggle against religious superstitions. A tolerant attitude
toward religion and the observance of religious ceremonies are not reconcilable
with m.emebership in the Komsomol. A basic and decisive means in the battle
against religious prejudices is the dissemination of factual scientific
knowledge and tenacious and constant propaganda of the materialistic concept
of the world.
01/-\111'41L war for Communism.
The war against religious vestiges is the war for the new man, the
slated 0 so
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