p Religion is a distorted reflection of reality. “All religion ... 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,”  [382•*  Engels wrote.

p The opponents of Marxism attempt to prove that religion is external, that nature endowed man with religious feelings. In reality, however, religion arose only at a definite stage in society’s development. The origin of religion can be traced, to ignorance of the true causes of natural and social phenomena, to the awe-inspiring power of nature’s spontaneous forces and social oppression.

p The basic feature of religion is belief in the supernatural. Being dependent on nature’s forces, men ascribed supernatural properties to them, made them into gods and spirits, devils and angels, etc. They naively believed that if these imaginary beings were not appeased, they could inflict harm and suffering on them, while if they were placated and worshipped they would help the people. This is how religious worship arose, a combination of prayers, sacrifices and other rites. Religious worship brought into being priests, sorcerers, pastors and other religious servants and also various religious organisations and institutions.

p The appearance of classes and exploitation subjected man to the pressure of spontaneous social forces in face of which he was as helpless as the savage was in face of elementary natural forces. The helplessness of the exploited in the struggle against the exploiters, Lenin wrote, gave rise to a belief in a better life in the next world as inevitably as the impotence of the savage in fighting nature engendered belief in gods, devils, miracles, etc. The working people sought in religion salvation from the terrible sufferings and privations inflicted on them by exploiting society.

p The social role of religion can be either progressive or reactionary. Because it is used for political ends by different 383 social classes and groups.

p The exploiting classes use, and have always used, religion as an instrument of spiritual oppression, subordinating the working people to their interests, and buttressing their own dominant place in society.

p “Religion is the opium of the people-this dictum by Marx is the corner-stone of the whole Marxist outlook on religion,”  [383•*  Lenin wrote. It preaches subordination to the exploiters, submission to fate, non-resistance to evil and violence and thereby paralyses the people’s revolutionary energy, dooms them to passivity, to patient waiting for everything to be done by god’s will. By its false promises of the kingdom of heaven, of a happy life in the next world, religion diverts the working people from the most burning issues of reality, from the revolutionary struggle against exploitation and for a just, genuinely humane social system. Today religion is a weapon used by reactionary imperialist forces. At the same time, however, clerics are compelled to reckon with the new historical conditions, with the desire of the people for peace and their craving for a better life. And so, in order not to repulse the believers and to swell their numbers, clerics in some measure take the interests of the people into consideration, especially their striving for peace and material security. But this does not as a rule alter the social functions of religion which under capitalism continues to be an instrument of the exploiters in their struggle against the working class, against the forces of socialism and progress. It occurs in history that one and the same religion plays different roles in society, depending on what class practises it. For the mass of the people, for example, Islam is an ideological weapon against reactionaries, while reactionaries and imperialist forces often use it against the progressive forces. It is, therefore, wrong to refer a movement to the reactionary camp just because its slogans are religious. In our time, priests and large masses of believers often come out for social progress, and against reaction. There is a variety of reasons (low level of political awareness, strong religious traditions in the country, religious education, and the like) why progressive action is clothed in religious garb, as is 384 indeed typical for developing countries.

p Marxism-Leninism argues that joint struggle against reaction and for a revolutionary renewal of the world by all the working people—believers and atheists alike—is necessary and possible. Communist parties in developing countries organise co-operation with the mass of believers in the fight against imperialism, and for peace, democracy and socialism. For Communists, wrote Lenin, “creation of a paradise on earth is more important ... than unity of proletarian opinion on the paradise in heaven”.  [384•* 

p Religion is deeply hostile to science, to a scientific world outlook. For many centuries the Church ruthlessly suppressed science and persecuted scientists. It prohibited the spreading of progressive ideas, destroyed books propagating these ideas, and confined their authors to dungeons or burned them at the stake. Many progressive people perished in the flames of the Inquisition, including such notable scientists as Giordano Bruno and Lucilio Vanini.

p Despite all its exertions the Church was unable to stem scientific progress dictated by the requirements of material production. In our days, being unable to refute the greatest scientific achievements, the clerics try to reconcile science with religion, to prove that scientific achievements do not run counter to faith, but are in line with it.

Such attempts are absolutely futile. Science and religion are incompatible. Science gives man true knowledge of the world and the laws of its development. It helps him to master natural and social forces and to organise production. Religion, on the other hand, distorts the essence of the world, gives the wrong interpretation of it, stultifies the mind and will of man and deprives him of confidence in the triumph of science and progress.