In today’s class-based societies, religion, while representing the beliefs of large sections of workers and the toiling masses, serves as a tool in the hands of capitalists and the state. Through religion, people are deceived with the hope of a mythical life in another world, enabling the continuation of capitalist rule and the maintenance of their earthly paradise in this world. Throughout history, religion has consistently reflected the despair and helplessness of the masses in confronting the obstacles that stand in the way of their lives.
A person trapped in the relations of the capitalist system, who cannot change their living conditions on their own and is powerless against the suffering and hardship afflicting them and their family, inevitably turns to the heavens when they see themselves as weak and helpless. They hope for a force stronger than themselves to intervene and rescue them. When no hope remains in the real world for fulfilling their dreams, they begin to wish for rebirth after death to achieve their desires. With the dream of attaining comfort and happiness in an imaginary afterlife, they endure the suffering and hardship of their current reality.
Capitalist states rely on various forms of suppression to sustain their exploitative domination. Direct suppression through imprisonment, torture, execution, and fostering an atmosphere of policing and fear is just one form of this oppression. Another form, facilitated by religion, involves internalizing this suppression. Through religion, they silence the voices of dissent from within. In essence, they transform individuals into their own oppressors. Religion teaches those who spend their lives toiling and living in need to accept, submit, and find solace in the hope of heavenly rewards as long as they live on this earth. Religion acts as a kind of spiritual narcotic, causing the slaves of capital to willingly abandon their demands for a better life, one more befitting of human dignity.
The liberation of the working class and the toiling masses from the grip of this internal suppressive tool is possible through enlightenment and the scientific analysis of global issues within a defined framework. However, social liberation is only achievable when the material conditions of human life change, and those natural and social forces that drive people to seek refuge in religion are brought under the control of the working class and the progressive, forward-thinking consciousness of humanity. It is in pursuit of such an objective that the demand for the separation of religion from the state is raised.
The truth is that religion, whether independent from the state or not, serves as a tool for the internal suppression of workers and the toiling masses who have grown weary of the current system and oppose it. However, realizing the demand for the separation of religion from the state removes this suppressive tool from the hands of capitalists and their governments. Separation of religion from the state means the strict abolition of any privileges or discrimination in state employment or individual rights based on religion, religious status, or belief or lack of belief in religion. It means the strict abolition of state financial or non-financial assistance to religious institutions and activities. It means removing religious teachings, rituals, and traditions from public schools and educational institutions. It means that no religion will be recognized as the official religion, religion will be treated as a private matter, and all individuals will be free to choose any religion or no religion at all.
The slogan “separation of religion from the state” expresses not only our opposition to religion as a state matter but also our commitment to the principle of unconditional freedom of belief. It emphasizes that the working class, whether in opposition or after gaining political power, strictly rejects the use of coercion, force, inquisitions, or the imposition of legal restrictions and discrimination against religious individuals. To criticize and reject religious beliefs and ideas in society, only theoretical struggle, enlightenment, education, and persuasion are considered acceptable methods.
The demand for the separation of religion from the state eliminates the government’s ability to promote religion using society’s wealth and public resources. For this reason, the separation of religion from the state and the privatization of religion is one of the demands for which we communists fight. However, aside from us, some segments of the bourgeois opposition also advocate for this demand regardless of how committed they may remain to it in the future and sometimes promote non-religious ideas, labeling themselves as secularists.
What distinguishes our position from bourgeois movements is not merely our secularism or demand for the separation of religion from the state, but also our effort to expose and explain the political and social role of religion in serving the capitalist class system.
In our struggle against religion, we never disrespect people’s beliefs. Our task is to patiently enlighten, explain the facts, and present a reasoned and coherent communist worldview in relation to the phenomenon of religion. Such an approach does not create division but fosters unity. It not only strengthens the solidarity of the working class in their struggle against capitalists, but because of its honest, scientific, realistic, and compassionate nature, it also strengthens the workers’ class struggle.
