Who are we mourning, Russians?
Religion is one of the means of dehumanizing humanity.
The fight against religion is the fight for the future of mankind.
In early December of last year the chief cleric of All Russia “fell asleep in the Lord” – Patriarch Alexy II, born Alexei Mikhailovich Ridiger. This thing happens, especially to old people. Alexei Mikhailovich was a believer, though, and believers have every chance to be reborn in the aftermath of a double battle with the Antichrist. Even though, according to the Bible, it is practically impossible for a Russian to become included in the “144 thousand sealed ones from every tribe of the sons of Israel” to whom immortality is guaranteed, heaven is not ruled out to him. According to Russian mass media, the late Patriarch’s life was so irreproachable that heaven is guaranteed to him. I am therefore not worried about Alexy II’s fate after death. I wouldn’t have bothered with this article had it not been for the “universal-historical” resonance which rolled over Russia as a result of Mr. Ridiger’s death.
I
Television sank into deep sorrow which was shared by all Orthodox folk of Russia – who constitute almost 80% of the country’s population, unless the Church is lying to us. Quite a lot of these folk came to pay their final respects to God’s vicar on Earth – almost 80 thousand lay people, including some highly esteemed ones and even the top ones in Russia: the President and the Prime Minister. These top personages – believers, by the way – said the most heartfelt words about the departed man. The former said that the scale of Patriarch’s personality had a colossal impact on the spiritual life and the moral state of the Russian society. “Linked directly to him, to his name are the rise of the Russian Orthodox Church, the actual establishment of the principles of freedom of conscience and freedom of confession. And, of course, civil peace and accord in the multinational and multi-confessional country that is Russia,” – noted Dmitry Medvedev.
According to the Prime Minister, the Patriarch’s passing is a very tragic and sad event. “He wasn’t only a most major figure in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, but also a major statesman,” – Putin said. What he apparently meant is that, despite the separation of the church from the state, the Patriarch penetrated into the affairs of the state very actively.
These run-of-the-mill words, however, pale in comparison to the lamentations of mister-comrade Prokhanov - that affected critic of the regime. The obituary he published in the newspaper Zavtra can’t be read with dry eyes. Here is just the start: “The suffocating time of the crisis. The convulsions of “quotes” and “rates”. The jostling of “red” and “blue” chips. The carnage between “bears” and “bulls”. And then suddenly, amidst the epileptic madness, the material world gone insane – the Patriarch died. The picture of the torn creation stood still for a moment, and in the exposed quiet presented itself the peaceful, sad face of the sage and man of prayer in a silvery radiance, framed by lilies – flowers of the celestial paradise.” This passage is formed almost after Shakespeare’s “the time is out of joint”.
Mr.-Comrade Prokhanov, however, is not only a lyricist but also a politician, a fighter for the Greatest Russia which the West dreams of swallowing. He didn’t hesitate to remind us of this even in the obituary: “We should remember Brzezinski’s words that Russian Orthodoxy is the last barrier preventing the West from routing the unyielding people and seizing the territory it doesn’t yet control.”
II
I thought as I was observing this whole bacchanalia: can it be that when Gorbachev dies, everyone will likewise write and speak of the great deeds of that idle talker, the scale of whose crimes regarding the USSR exceeds that of Hitler? Can it be that no one understands the harmfulness of Patriarch Alexy’s work for the fate of Russia and the Russians? Can it be that no one realizes that it is cause for weeping - not for being proud - that under Alexy “a large number of new dioceses were formed, over 20,000 churches and monasteries were rebuilt and built, over a hundred new religious schools were opened.” So much labor, material and human resources were used up to erect buildings for praying to god-myths! I can understand when this was done in the Middle Ages, in the era of obscurantism. In the 21st century, however, especially in Russia, where hundreds of thousands of schools disappeared throughout the land, and higher education became a sham, this amounts to producing an ignorant population, rejecting Darwin for the sake of the Bible’s first page.
What kind of “civil peace” - to which the Patriarch allegedly contributed - is Medvedev talking about when it was precisely after Alexy’s election to the position of Patriarch in 1990 that a civil war almost started for real in Russia: the shelling of the “White House”; the war in Chechnya; the factual secession from Russia of that same Chechnya and of all Northern Caucasus in general (as it refused to observe the Constitution of the Russian Federation); the war between the rich and the poor; the war even between the rich themselves; the growth of crime, corruption; all sorts of catastrophes in cities, in the industry, in military installations? All that is the most black, deadening, perilous triumphs in today’s Russia to the ringing of bells and the singing of church choirs under the direction of the conductor – the Patriarch. The more religious the country became due to the efforts of the Church and Alexy personally, the more unbearable life became in Russia, the fewer Russians themselves remained.
III
Anyway: it’s the 21st century! The Third Millennium! Christianity, religion, God? The Orthodox faith? Could it be that Russia found itself in the 12th century, having confused everything?
Religion – as ideology, as politics and as religion in itself – as faith in God – inflicted greater damage on the development of mankind than all other perils in the history of mankind combined.
Religion and science? It’s not even worth talking about. Moreover, religion is a clever excuse for remaining ignorant – this also means ignorant in the religious sense. I, for example, never met a religious person who read the whole Bible from beginning to end. It’s because it’s impossible to stay religious after reading the entire Bible. Those who do manage that feat are definitely ill – schizophrenic, most likely.
Morals? Religion is one of the most perverted forms of morals; it is amoral in its very essence. Hypocrisy is its main property. It gives birth to criminals and crime, since it permits to pray away any sins. It is for a reason that the legendary Christ adored sinners.
And the wars! Where religion begins, wars emerge! Geostrategic wars have a beginning and an end; religious wars are endless.
Temples, cathedrals and churches dedicated to gods are monuments to waste of human strength and energy, monuments to mankind’s idiocy.
How many priest-parasites did religion give birth to? Millions over the history of mankind. A priest is an onerous burden to a working man.
How many wills were paralyzed, how many slave-sheep or slave-rams were created!
The shrinking of Russia’s population – this is the result of the Orthodox religion! Where god begins, life ends!
Orthodoxy is no “barrier” to the West, Mr. Prokhanov. Orthodoxy is destroying Russia and Russians by itself. It is in the interests of the West.
Orthodoxy and nationalism produce “the black hundreds” as their output – the fighting advance-guard of obscurantism. Their rising to power results in a retreat amounting to several centuries, that is, in the establishment of a state along the lines of the Middle East.
***
Patriarch Alexy may have been a decent man personally; his activity, however, like that of all religious personalities, starting with the Pope, objectively worked to slow down mankind’s progress. Religion is one of the main allies of the law of entropy growth, i.e. the law of death. This was realized by very many outstanding personages and geniuses in the history of mankind, including even thinkers of Antiquity. Mankind’s progress itself was and still is possible, though, because the anti-religious forces are superior to all servants of god put together, despite their numerical inferiority – due to their qualitative superiority. Religion is tenacious of life, though, since it is consciously supported and protected by all exploitation-based societies. It will eventually vanish from the face of the Earth, naturally, and will be remembered only as a fairy tale, alongside Koshchei the Deathless or Baba Yaga. But it won’t go without a fight. The fight against religion remains just as urgent a task as the fight against the societies which support it - that is, the feudal ones and the capitalist ones. This struggle takes on different forms and proceeds in different spheres. One has to keep in mind that unlike the western versions of Christianity, especially the Anglo-Saxon variety, Orthodoxy is aggressive (there are reasons for this). Therefore the fight against it must be waged not in semi-whisper, but in an assertive, attacking fashion. A passive atheist is a lousy atheist. An atheist must always be militant. Especially since science and truth are on his side.
And so is the future!
Alex Battler
09.02.2009
Here are some of my definitions included in my Dictionary (the Battler Dictionary) which is still in the compilation mode.
Christ (Jesus) – a collective image of vagabonds in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire which the fathers of Christianity turned into a legend and ascribed to this mythical personality the main postulates of the Christian religion.
Christianity – a religious teaching which in its initial stage was directed against the dominion of the Roman Empire and was subsequently embraced by Rome as it attempted to use this monotheistic religion to prevent the empire’s collapse.
In the modern capitalist world Christianity performs the same function: it tries to prevent the collapse of capitalism.