Early Soviet Text on Bible Criticism

[Laika]

I've provided a link to an English Translation (using Google) of the "Bible for believers and nonbelievers". It's an e-book version of Emelyan M. Yaroslavsky's text origially written 1923-5, but this is a 1958 edition. it's missing only a few chapters and covers Genisis, Exodus, Leviticus,etc. I don't think it's a "complete" criticism of the Bible but none the less its pretty substantive. it will read differently to people who are more used to the "New Atheists" such as Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens etc because it is "materialist". Yaroslavsky was the Chairman of the League of the Militant Godless in the USSR from its foundation in1925 to it's disbandment in 1943, so I imagine this would be pretty definitive as a text in that "school" of thinking.

I haven't read it but am simply staggered I can find a copy at all. Having looked high and low for original texts on Soviet "Scientific Atheism" and "The League of Militant Godless" I'm aware they are difficult to come by because of the language barriers even if you take the "abundance" of sources avaliable on the internet into account. I thought I should share this in case Atheists, Christians, Jews on the forum are interested to flick through it, or if a general reader wants to get an insight into this period of intellectual history.

https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.e-reading.club/book.php?book=1024491&prev=search

p.s. As a bit extra, it may also be worth throwing in a link to Ludwig Feuerbach's "The Essence of Christianity" as that will also provide sources for a materialist understanding of Christianity and Religion. It was influencial in developing the atheist view that God is a projection of Man which influenced Karl Marx and also appearently on Sigmund Freud and Fredrich Nietzsche.

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/feuerbach/works/essence/

p.s.s. here's Karl Kautsyk's Foundations of Christianity:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1908/christ/

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Thanks. I doubt I'll read the whole thing but I have started on the first and it's interesting. The arguments dont seem unfamiliar although the way they are presented are to a degree.

 

[Aiviu]

I've provided a link to an English Translation (using Google) of the "Bible for believers and nonbelievers". It's an e-book version of Emelyan M. Yaroslavsky's text origially written 1923-5, but this is a 1958 edition. it's missing only a few chapters and covers Genisis, Exodus, Leviticus,etc. I don't think it's a "complete" criticism of the Bible but none the less its pretty substantive. it will read differently to people who are more used to the "New Atheists" such as Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens etc because it is "materialist". Yaroslavsky was the Chairman of the League of the Militant Godless in the USSR from its foundation in1925 to it's disbandment in 1943, so I imagine this would be pretty definitive as a text in that "school" of thinking.

I haven't read it but am simply staggered I can find a copy at all. Having looked high and low for original texts on Soviet "Scientific Atheism" and "The League of Militant Godless" I'm aware they are difficult to come by because of the language barriers even if you take the "abundance" of sources avaliable on the internet into account. I thought I should share this in case Atheists, Christians, Jews on the forum are interested to flick through it, or if a general reader wants to get an insight into this period of intellectual history.

https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.e-reading.club/book.php?book=1024491&prev=search

p.s. As a bit extra, it may also be worth throwing in a link to Ludwig Feuerbach's "The Essence of Christianity" as that will also provide sources for a materialist understanding of Christianity and Religion. It was influencial in developing the atheist view that God is a projection of Man which influenced Karl Marx and also appearently on Sigmund Freud and Fredrich Nietzsche.

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/feuerbach/works/essence/

Thanks for the find.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

I found Kautsky's Foundation of Christianity interesting when I read it many years ago.

 

[Laika]

I found Kautsky's Foundation of Christianity interesting when I read it many years ago.

I didn't know about that one, but Karl Kautsky was the big name for Marxism in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. I've added it to the OP, so thanks for that.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

I didn't know about that one, but Karl Kautsky was the big name for Marxism in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. I've added it to the OP, so thanks for that.

You're welcome. If I remember correctly, I found it to be a good example of an historical materialist study.

I always rather liked the Kautsky, Feuerbach, Luxemburg, Trotsky voice.

 

[Faronator]

Bookmarked. Should make for an interesting read. Thanks!

 

[Brickjectivity]

I've provided a link to an English Translation (using Google) of the "Bible for believers and nonbelievers". It's an e-book version of Emelyan M. Yaroslavsky's text origially written 1923-5, but this is a 1958 edition. it's missing only a few chapters and covers Genisis, Exodus, Leviticus,etc. I don't think it's a "complete" criticism of the Bible but none the less its pretty substantive. it will read differently to people who are more used to the "New Atheists" such as Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens etc because it is "materialist". Yaroslavsky was the Chairman of the League of the Militant Godless in the USSR from its foundation in1925 to it's disbandment in 1943, so I imagine this would be pretty definitive as a text in that "school" of thinking.

I haven't read it but am simply staggered I can find a copy at all. Having looked high and low for original texts on Soviet "Scientific Atheism" and "The League of Militant Godless" I'm aware they are difficult to come by because of the language barriers even if you take the "abundance" of sources avaliable on the internet into account. I thought I should share this in case Atheists, Christians, Jews on the forum are interested to flick through it, or if a general reader wants to get an insight into this period of intellectual history.

https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.e-reading.club/book.php?book=1024491&prev=search

p.s. As a bit extra, it may also be worth throwing in a link to Ludwig Feuerbach's "The Essence of Christianity" as that will also provide sources for a materialist understanding of Christianity and Religion. It was influencial in developing the atheist view that God is a projection of Man which influenced Karl Marx and also appearently on Sigmund Freud and Fredrich Nietzsche.

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/feuerbach/works/essence/

p.s.s. here's Karl Kautsyk's Foundations of Christianity:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1908/christ/

I was looking at this old post. The translation is very readable. I was surprised. I think this author (Yaroslavsky) does not give any explanations or arguments for most of his comments. For example he says that circumcision arises from the Stone Age and comes from human sacrifice originally, but he provides no background or biography. He doesn't give any source, so he just expects to be taken at his word. Another example: he dismisses the story of Moses as a fiction and gives no reason why.

 

[Laika]

I was looking at this old post. The translation is very readable. I was surprised. I think this author (Yaroslavsky) does not give any explanations or arguments for most of his comments. For example he says that circumcision arises from the Stone Age and comes from human sacrifice originally, but he provides no background or biography. He doesn't give any source, so he just expects to be taken at his word. Another example: he dismisses the story of Moses as a fiction and gives no reason why.

Atheism (as in "there is no god" rejection of the concept not lack of belief) was a by-product of philosophical materialism. It was taken as self-evidently true and "scientific" amongst Marxists...

...which sucks because I still haven't found one text that actually spells out how they were so certian god didn't exist. I've had to use fragments of ideas from marxist texts to understand it (still a work in progress).

It would appear they argued that materialism was a preconception on which their ideology was built but the "leap" to accepting it as true is still something I don't fully understand or accept. It is arguably open to the accusation of dogma but they may argue something like: "free thought is an illusion as our ideas are necessarily determined by sensation of objective reality, so there is no such things as 'dogma' because that means treating ideas in abstraction from their material source because all ideologies have preconceptions". It could be circular reasoning but its a really complicated bit of philosophy too.

There may be other works like this in Russian such as dealing with the league of militant godless or their newspaper bezboznik ("godless" in russian) but it would be an effort to locate them.

 

[Brickjectivity]

Atheism (as in "there is no god" rejection of the concept not lack of belief) was a by-product of philosophical materialism. It was taken as self-evidently true and "scientific" amongst Marxists...

...which sucks because I still haven't found one text that actually spells out how they were so certian god didn't exist. I've had to use fragments of ideas from marxist texts to understand it (still a work in progress).

It would appear they argued that materialism was a preconception on which their ideology was built but the "leap" to accepting it as true is still something I don't fully understand or accept. It is arguably open to the accusation of dogma but they may argue something like: "free thought is an illusion as our ideas are necessarily determined by sensation of objective reality, so there is no such things as 'dogma' because that means treating ideas in abstraction from their material source because all ideologies have preconceptions". It could be circular reasoning but its a really complicated bit of philosophy too.

There may be other works like this in Russian such as dealing with the league of militant godless or their newspaper bezboznik ("godless" in russian) but it would be an effort to locate them.

Skimming some bare-bones information about the situation in Russia around 1917...the concept of 'Russification', food shortages, industrialization, sprawling ungovernable lands of many varieties and many nationalities. I can see that the concept of materialism would immediately cut through the various nationalities and recognize two basic groups: the haves and the have-nots. So many people were peasants, and this was a time of changing attitudes towards many things. What better way to unite people than to offer a solution to all their problems that involved rejecting their previous cultural uniqueness? So this was the real selling point of Marxism perhaps - hope for an end to poverty.

 

[Laika]

Skimming some bare-bones information about the situation in Russia around 1917...the concept of 'Russification', food shortages, industrialization, sprawling ungovernable lands of many varieties and many nationalities. I can see that the concept of materialism would immediately cut through the various nationalities and recognize two basic groups: the haves and the have-nots. So many people were peasants, and this was a time of changing attitudes towards many things. What better way to unite people than to offer a solution to all their problems that involved rejecting their previous cultural uniqueness? So this was the real selling point of Marxism perhaps - hope for an end to poverty.

Essentially yes. The "selling" point of Marxism is based on asserting that science can be used to understand society and improve it. This gives alot of space for utopian aspirations about ending poverty, but also war, social conflict, discrimination and until you reach an international stateless, classless stage of social development, i.e. Communism. Its not supposed to be "perfect", just a heck of alot better.

Marxists built on the optimism of the educated classes in the 19th century as a period of industrialisation, scientific and technological progress and said "lets keep going until it benifits everyone". The theory is much more complex but the idea that society will progress indefinetely until its eliminated most or all social evils is the big attraction. It comes in alot of shapes and sizes but idea of looking at history as a law governed progression to a "higher stage of development" that can be understood scientifically is consistent throughout all its major variations.