Is Marxism a religion or not?

Question

I am not giving my opinion yet because someone answering another one of my questions has just inferred that I only ask questions so I can get MY point of view across :-)

what about buddhism and confucianism?

Answer 1

Absolutly not in today. But, some many hundred years after, we should recognize the potential for being a religion. I think so.

Answer 2

Well, it all depends on your definition of religion. If your definition of religion requires the presence of a "supernatural" element, then obviously Marxism isn't a religion, since it does not explicitly advocate the existence or worship of any supernatural element. However, if religion is defined as a metaphysical system used to view how the world ultimately works, then Marxism might possibly dwell on that, since Marxism does make truth claims about how the world works and provides suggestions for how that world might be improved, like the other major religions in the world.

Answer 3

No, Marxism is not a religion. It is a political philosophy.

Marx's primary tenant is that THE PEOPLE should own the machinery that makes things. In a perfect world, his ideas are sound. However, the environment of Marxism, like all political philosophies, was that of human corruption and power.

The democratic ideal of a "free market", meaning; a commerce-driven economy of free-will and informed-choice, has proved to be less susceptible to corruption, though NOT immune.

Marx, and his philosophy are idealistic.
Idealistic philosophies do not work perfectly in the real world.

Marx was correct in that:
When people share ownership, they have a vested interest in making their businesses work.
When the machines and land (property) are owned by the few, the the Many suffer as slaves.

This is evident even today in (supposedly) democratic societies.

Who amongst the British or American ranks does not feel like a slave?

Only those who, through right of birth, luck or swindle, have come to own the property of commerce.

Marx's ideal was to reward the working class for their labor.
Democratic ideals do the same, albeit furtively and inconsistently.

Marxism is not evil. Marxism is not a religion.

Marxism is a communal property-sharing political philosophy that failed because it was not as successful as democracy and the free market.

Curiously, the best and most successful corporations in America give ownership and special privileges to their employees, and so, mirror some of Marx's ideals. The crucial difference is that, PROFIT, ego, greed, and a slightly less corrupt political system allowed these concepts to function more efficiently in a democratic environment.

ALL political ideals work perfectly in an ideal world.
NO political philosophy works perfectly in the real world.

Democracy, through its founding father's genius of The Constitution, has been the most successful political ideal so far. That does not mean it is perfect, or that it is incorruptible.

The evidence only validates our Founding Fathers' wisdom in the ingenious construction of democracy through the The Constitution of the United States of America.

The great Statesmen who successfully fought empirical domination knew that freedom FROM, REASON, and TRUTH were the GREAT CAUSES of humankind. That is why America is great and has survived, and it is why Marxism failed.

So long as WE The People remain true to the Great Constitution, We will survive.

As long as we allow corporations to have the rights of a fictional person, or government to become more communistic, our survival is in danger.

All political philosophies are idealistic, including Marxism.
Only Democracy, in its many forms, has been proved resilient enough to survive the entropy of human corruption.

Carl Marx, and his political philosophy, are not wrong. The system he proposed was simply not as wise or worldly as that of Democratic principles.

Answer 4

What is wrong with you getting your point across?

Marxism: a body of doctrine developed by Karl Marx and, to a lesser extent, by Friedrich Engels in the mid-19th century. It originally consisted of three related ideas: a philosophical view of man, a theory of history, and an economic and political program. There is also Marxism as it has been understood and practiced by the various socialist movements, particularly before 1914. Then there is Soviet Marxism as worked out by Lenin and modified by Stalin, which under the name of Marxism-Leninism became the doctrine of the communist parties set up after the Russian Revolution. Offshoots of this include Marxism as interpreted by the anti-Stalinist Leon Trotsky and his followers, Mao Zedong's (Mao Tse-tung's) Chinese variant of Marxism-Leninism, and various Third World Marxisms. There are also the post-World War II nondogmatic Marxisms that have modified Marx's thought with borrowings from modern philosophies, principally from those of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger but also from Sigmund Freud and others.

Answer 5

I'm going to have to follow all these good answers with a rather lame one. Confucianism is not a religion but more of a moral code, it doesn't appeal to transcendental entities or promises of afterlife (unlike Taoism).

Buddhism does and is therefore a religion.

Marxism is a pseudo science and economic/political theory but the 'inexorability' of the dialectic is very akin to the determinism believed by many religious sects.

Answer 6

Religion requires Deity or the supernatural, even Buddhism which can accomodate atheism or agnosticism still considers an Afterlife. Marxism was a political philosophy (NOT a science) which inspired quasi-religious behavior - but really wasn't a religion.

Answer 7

Marxism is an economic theory and a philosophy, but it is not a scientific theory because it is not falsifiable (see Karl Popper for the principle of falsifiability).
As for Buddhism it is a religion and a philosophy (this depends much from which sect of Buddhism you are looking at it).
Confucianism is a moral philosophy, in fact it teaches you how to behave, but I don't know much about it, therefore I have to suspend judgment on it.

Answer 8

No Marxism is not a religion. Marxist theory is a critical method of analysing a society, specifically Capitalist society, as a guide to political action in the real world.

However, certain political ideologies based on Marxism, such as Stalinism and Maoism, have taken on the attributes of religion in practise.

Answer 9

It's a political philosophy includes economy and, many a person have used their Marxist belief in a bid to create a just society, "Them and us" as a reason to create havoc and mayhem! All only too ready to destroy present society in a bid to reconstruct a better one (To them) based on the Marxist model. Now i could be wrong, only read Marx a couple of times as part of my studies but i don't recall Marx suggesting that his ideas should be used as a Bible of some kind if many Marxist followers may feel it should be.

Answer 10

No Marxism is not a religion and neither is Buddhism strictly speaking.