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== Communism and Atheism ==

== Communism and Atheism ==

[[Image:HammerAndSickle.png|thumb|right|200px|The Hammer and Sickle, the international symbol of communism. The hammer represents industrial work of the proletariat, and the sickle represents the agricultural work of peasants. The symbol itself, with both tools crossed, is meant to promote unity between these classes.]]

[[Image:HammerAndSickle.png|thumb|right|200px|The Hammer and Sickle is an offensive symbol of oppression in much of the world in the same way the [[Swasika]] is.]]

 

Marx coined the saying "Religion is the opium of the people" expressing his view that religion, and in particular state-endorsed religion, has been used for centuries as a form of social control by promising the downtrodden a better life in a mythical hereafter to deter them from trying to build one here and now by removing the chains of their masters and overthrowing the capitalist system that oppressed them.  Karl Marx wrote: "Communism begins from the outset (Owen) with atheism; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction."  

Marx coined the saying "Religion is the opium of the people" expressing his view that religion, and in particular state-endorsed religion, has been used for centuries as a form of social control by promising the downtrodden a better life in a mythical hereafter to deter them from trying to build one here and now by removing the chains of their masters and overthrowing the capitalist system that oppressed them.  Karl Marx wrote: "Communism begins from the outset (Owen) with atheism; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction."