askchapo

GNU/Linux for sure.

I'm bracing for people to say Buddhism but tbh Buddhism has a strong inclination towards not helping out others because "it's their karma" as well as the catholic church version of Buddhism, namely Vajrayana, being culpable for lots of criticisms that people level against the Catholic church.

Islam gets an honourable mention because of their fairly strict prohibition on riba, which is like usury except a souped-up version of it (which is more or less enforced in Islam, unlike most forms of Christianity) and a genuine, enforced commitment to actual charity and not just tithing. Islam is often pretty hostile towards communism but that's mostly because of material conditions and the fact that their version of Liberation Theology-type leaders mostly get killed.

I also think that Sikhism gets an honourable mention because it's quite radical, abolishing caste and demanding that justice be upheld, even if it requires violence or putting one's life on the line to defend it. I know in India there was a split in the communist movements in the north, where Sikhism is most prevalent, over whether the revolution would be fought with modern weapons or with the traditional weapons of Sikhism (the kirpan, the khanda, the katar, the chakram etc.) I get why they are of central religious significance to Sikhs but idk why it's cause for a split though; the last human Sikh guru owned a musket.

It's probably due to being culturally adjacent as much as anything but I'd say that Christianity, specifically Liberation Theology, is the most compatible with communism especially given the Colombian ELN and the FSLN (Sandinistas) in Nicaragua.

Personally I think that religion requires a foundation of idealism that is inherently incompatible with materialism and I would like to see the gradual erosion of religion such that it exits the political and ideological spheres and gets relegated to cultural practice, like what you see with something like Shintoism as practiced by most Japanese people or ancestor worship in East Asia; lots of people build shrines to their ancestors and celebrate relevant days of observance but plenty of people don't actually pray to their ancestors or believe that the heavens have influence on the world. This is a lot like how westerners visit graves and do things like talk to the deceased or write letters to them or leave flowers, alcohol, and mementos (*gasp!* almost as "offerings" except that only the Orientals leave offerings - westerners are above such superstitious practices, right??) If the world can reach a stage where religious rites and observances are performed due to cultural habit rather than belief in the supernatural then I think we would be on the right track.

Yeah, some of those Reddit-Atheist takes were painful to read on one of the other recent posts. There's a whole tradition of religious individuals being pushed towards anarchist and communist ideologies. Some Catholic priests have even had an about-face, getting so involved in liberation theology as to be excommunicated. Still making painfully slow progress in the Quran, but there's a lot of stuff about supporting the poor, hungry, and sick. I've worked with a lot of (non-Evangelical) Christians on praxis. You can also say a lot about stuff like Wicca and its dogshit creator, but I've known a few witches to also get involved in stuff. If religious people couldn't be revolutionary, then the government wouldn't have killed people like Malcolm X, MLK, John Brown, and the preachers behind so many peasant riots in England back in the day.

All religions are compatible with communism except for american [and by extension western] protestantism

So I'm an Atheist but here's a hot take: most if not all religions are kind of equally compatible and incompatible with communism in the same way they're equally compatible and incompatible with capitalism. The concept of Diagetic Existentialism is largely concerned with realities that are understood to be fictional in nature but I also think it goes a long way towards explaining how you can simultaneous have the American religious right as well as people unironically proclaiming that "JESUS WAS A SOCIALIST" in the same timeline. They're both working with the same material and sources but at the end of the day its all kinda in what you choose to take away from it.

at the risk of being called a reddit atheist, i have to say it's frustrating that this discourse keeps abstracted to 'is religion compatible with communist ideology' and not 'is being reactionary compatible with communist ideology'

because that's what it ultimately comes down to - a lot of the issues people have with religion stem from reactionary thinking and actions, which on a surface level seems like it can be separated from religion as a whole, but I would argue that the two functionally can not be unlinked. At the end of the day, at it's very core many religious beliefs rely on, and encourage, reactionary behaviour - and while some are better and more communal minded/liberation adjacent than others, I would say that this is by coincidence and we cannot make the mistake of trying to make reactionary ideologies 'work for us'. You need only look at stupidpol to see what happens when you throw people under the bus in order to not turn away what you might see as potential comrades - you will not drag them left with you, you'll only poison your own well and create yet another avenue for reactionary ideology to bolster itself.

This is not to say that no religious person can be a revolutionary, or that religious people cannot be our comrades - but they would have to be communist first and religious second or else I'd be wary that at some point some oppressed group is going to be thrown to the grinder, and I'll be honest - anecdotally, not a lot of religious people are like that, nor a lot of religions encourage such a relationship with their faith, no matter what denomination.

religions that come from communal cultures (that's most of them) are compatible with communism. religions that develop under the material conditions that promote the development of fascism and capitalism, not so much.

From an intro to a book on modern druids (what I consider my self)

“We (Druids) therefore recognize that our individuality is only an illusion, or a temporary state while we are in physical bodies. We are therefore not subordinate to anyone or anything, but rather interdependent upon each other. We recognize that if one person hurts, everyone hurts, if one person is homeless, everyone is affected by that state, that the good of the many outweighs the good of the few. So certain political philosophies, such as libertarianism, are anathema to us. Selfishness is the greatest evil there is. We really are our brothers keeper as he is ours."

I think that quote probably captures how a lot of us feel. Capitalism is in direct contradiction to that way of thinking. If we feel that all people are equals, all deserving of respect and compassion then the exploitation and suffering caused by the capitalist class must be opposed by us. And if you believe that you're connected to all living things then seeing your self as part of a collective is natural. Druidism is basically green anarchy with extra steps.

Posadism

No I will not elaborate

None, all religions are cope and lies and thus impede human and societal development. (Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of humans who have either not yet won through to themselves, or have already lost themselves again.)

Religious values and officials should not be seriously considered and should be always be excluded from important political decisions, and if they dare to insist on holding political power they should be suppressed until they learn to play along or stay quiet. But if people just want to pray or whatever because it makes them feel better then who cares, that's not a political matter. In a fully developed communist society religion will wither away anyway as self-actualization become universally available and exploitation is abolished.

Edit: Thought that is not to say that certain religious movements couldn't be hijacked and co-opted to serve a revolutionary movement seeking the construction of scientific socialism, but that's probably not what you or most people mean by "compatible" with communism. (Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.)

To at least give a slightly novel answer relative to the usual ones: Cheondoism was famously defended by Kim Il-Sung as being a "progressive" religion that should not disqualify someone from Party membership because it's fundamentally oriented around the liberation of the masses.

Also, I'm going to be That Guy and say that Theravada Buddhism is relatively compatible, as it was almost-inconceivably progressive for its time and still compares positively to many religions, including the more popular sects. It has its own issues, but in general I think the Buddha of the Pali Canon, the one who said there is no soul and risked his life to save a goat, is someone worth emulating from a communist perspective. I also think he bears little resemblance, for hopefully obvious reasons, to the Buddhas who have celestial empires and believe that those who suffer should be left to suffer because of Karma.

Also shout-out to Chan/Zen Buddhism with the major caveat that it has probably the worst co-opting by westerners into reactionary bullshit.

Lots of religions have principles that align with a love for mankind and communal sharing of resources.

How many of them have the understanding of material conditions needed to organize people into a force capable of meaningfully fighting against capitalism?

Religions are not static, they also are subject to dialectical and historical materialism. The rooting out of feudalistic and capitalistic institutional structures from the religious world, and the solving of more material problems by the secular world under socialism, will change people's relationship to religion, which in turn will change religion further.

I don't see any essential reason communists and religious entities have to step on each other's toes, but in the present a lot of incumbent reactionary power rides on existing religious institutions and formats. We can look to the histories of the socialist experiments to see examples both of the initial crushing of the reactionary religious elements, and later of more nuanced handling so that religious elements that pose little or no threat to the proletarian state are let be.

Communists have the soundest and best demonstrated methods of resolving class struggle that I know of, and I also think the changed relationship to work and leisure under socialism goes a long way to healing the lingering wounds of class society. I really don't know if a niche for spirituality will be left open by a communist society, or if the questions that become religious ones will be addressed satisfactorily before they can grow into aches.

For my part in the present, I use spiritual practice because my class enemies are still supplying me with plentiful wounds and aches, and my local communists are far from big or totalizing enough to have subsumed matters presently understood as spiritual. I'm working with the tools I've got.

I feel like the religions with high levels of non-theism are compatible. Quakers, Unitarian-Universalist, etc.

It doesn't answer your question, but I think this publication from the CPC Central Committee is worth reading: https://redsails.org/on-the-question-of-religion/

I hate feeling like a reddit atheist, but it feels really hard to imagine any organized religion not being a ticking time bomb in a communist society. You can bend most/all religions to fit communism in the same way you can bend them to fit capitalism and social conservatism, by ignoring the parts you don't like. However to me it seems like an organized religion is going to breed dogma and an in-group which is going to breed out group and discrimination. I'm pretty sure it's hard for me to look past my bias though, as my experiences with religions is mostly them wanting me dead.

acid marxist taiping gnosticism

I would argue that most religions are fine for this as long as you purge them of reactionaries.

unorganized shamanistic rituals int he middle of the forest high on mushrooms

Christianity. The Bible in multiple places states being rich one of the worst sins possible. It frequently states that giving what you have to help the less fortunate is the highest virtue. It's hard to imagine anyone messing this one up

all the ones that compartmentalize the unprovable "source: a guy said so" stuff can get along the same god-of-the-gaps way most religious people use cars, computers, and medicines despite the very same science that created those those things also invalidating doctrine and many supernatural claims.

None, however, those liberation and mutual aid tendencies that exist in near every religion will be ok until humanity can support itself enough to toss away the religious-mythical pain killers for the soul.

Wokeness

Trotskyism

Shinto. It lacks the problem of organised religions, although the Japanese state has previously put work in to create state Shintoism it doesn't really work the same way other organised religions do. It's very in tune with the natural surroundings and it cares about taking care of the environment because it is the environment that produces the Kami, spirits that inhabit it and come from objects/environments.

I see it as more of a spiritualist connection to our surroundings and even if you sincerely believe that the spirits are real they're never divinely perfect and are many of them are fought against entirely by humanity because they're obviously not good.

It works well.

Honestly though I've always thought the problem is not really religion or spirituality but organised religion functioning as an arm of the state.

I ain't no theologician, but I really like reading this thread and I'd also love it if someone could explain Judaism from this perspective. I'm not terribly knowledgeable on how Judaism really works internally, but I've heard a couple bits and pieces, particularly relevant here is the parable of the Oven of Akhnai, and I'd love to hear someone give more context and depth and then relate that to communist ideology

Any of them as long as you focus on the right now and not the afterlife stuff. That would technically make almost no religion compatible, but realistically not everyone will be devoted to the afterlife.

I don’t care if you think bread and wine can transform to blood and flesh if you chant some words. Are you providing bread and wine to people to eat and sustain themselves? If so, everything else is your business.