A Marxist on the mountain

"How the gods were made" is a pamphlet written by John Keracher, who is probably unknown outside an exclusive circle of experts on American Communism.

Keracher was the leader of the Proletarian Party of America (PPA), a relatively obscure group of expellees from the Communist Party of America (CPA). The PPA was more sectarian than usual and emphasized "Marxist education" (i.e. abstract propaganda). Formed in 1920, the small party somehow managed to survive until 1971. They seem to have been a Communist version of the SLP or the British SPGB.

"How the gods were made" is a short and straightforward exposition of the Marxist view of religion. As a materialist, Keracher believes that all our knowledge (including warped knowledge) comes from sense impressions of material objects. Therefore, gods must be based on phenomena in the material world. The author spends most of his time pointing out the similarities between the gods of a people and its material surroundings. Why do gods resemble animals, powers of nature or idealized humans? Why is Paradise often conceived in material terms? Why do hierarchical societies have hierarchical gods? Christianity was originally the religion of oppressed slaves, Catholicism reflects feudal conditions, while Protestantism is typically capitalist. As capitalism has become more flexible and modern, so has Protestantism in the form of evangelicalism.

Religion survives due to lack of scientific knowledge, traditional upbringing of children, priestly propaganda or sheer despair. However, the material conditions of the working class go against religion, since workers are directly tied up with purely material production based on high technology, and can organize themselves to improve their present-day conditions. Therefore, religion is doomed to eventually disappear during the class struggle against capitalism.

Keracher's text was written in 1929, and frequently sounds politically incorrect by modern standards. Thus, he refers to Muslims as "Mohammedans". At one point, the author writes: "At the time America was discovered, the Indians west of the Missouri River were in the upper stage of savagery, and east of the Missouri they were in the lower stage of barbarism." The Vikings, by contrast, were a "higher people" in the "upper stage of barbarism". Well, thank you. It seems there are barbarians closer to home, too: "Some workers are still very religious. (...) They are not to blame for being religious. They are often quite sincere. Our attitude toward them should be one of sympathy, and efforts should be made to rescue them from their barbarous beliefs." Ever the abstract propagandist, Keracher believes that the best antidote to religion is science. One should therefore impart "science" to the workers.

How successful was Keracher's pitch for atheism? No idea, but I get the feeling that "How the gods were made" is marred by a patronizing attitude towards religious workers. Ironically, it's also disdainful of other socialists, who are portrayed as incapable of answering the author's questions when he was still religious himself. The pamphlet portrays Keracher as a self-taught man, alone with his Marx and Engels. Although "How the gods were made" is free from the blasphemy-at-any-price typical of New Atheism, it nevertheless feels like we're being talked down to, somewhere from Mount Olympus...