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== Communism and militant atheism ==

== Communism and militant atheism ==

[[Karl Marx]] coined the saying "Religion is the Opiate of the people".  Karl Marx also 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."  

[[Karl Marx]] established atheism as a key part of communism.  he coined the saying "Religion is the Opiate of the masses." He believed it was part of the "superstructure," a false culture built to maintain the status quo.  Thus he denigrated Christianity as a fictional religion.  Instead, Marx was an avowed atheist, as he wrote, "Communism begins from the outset with [[atheism]]; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction."  

[[Vladimir Lenin]] similarly wrote: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on in practice and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."

[[Vladimir Lenin]] similarly wrote: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on in practice and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."