Scientific Atheism and Its Social Responsibilities (Part 2)

III. The Faith Core of Religion and Its Ideological and Social Nature

三、宗教的信仰内核及其意识形态和社会性质

People often use nouns and concepts rather loosely, whether intentionally or unintentionally, when interpreting texts or composing essays, and the differences can be substantial. The term “religion” is one such case. It is said that there are countless definitions of religion both at home and abroad. Recently, Comrade Li Shen examined its etymology. Here I will only discuss three current understandings people hold. First, it refers to religious concepts, including ghosts (souls), gods (the Lord), otherworldly realms (heaven and hell), and supernatural forces (fengshui, the Eight Characters [1]1 The Eight Characters (八字) are a traditional Chinese divination system based on the year, month, day, and hour of a person’s birth, each represented by two characters., extraordinary abilities, etc.). This is also the scope covered by “theism.” Second, it refers to religious behavior, meaning the behaviors manifested by religious concepts, such as sacrifices, prayers, worship, rituals, festivals, and related collective behaviors. These often have local and ethnic characteristics, and some are even transformed into folk customs. These two types of “religion” embody “faith” itself; they belong to the pure category of faith. They may have cultural significance, but they do not possess an ideological or social nature. In this regard, if someone says that religion has a “mass character,” an “ethnic character,” or a “long-term nature” and will not disappear even in communist society, I would not object. This is because their emergence is, to a large extent, constrained by psychological, physiological, and even pathological conditions, as well as the influence of traditional customs. Third, when religious concepts and religious behaviors are ideological and organized as social groups, they constitute “religion” in the complete sense with a social function. This type is constrained by the social base and obeys the historical laws of social development. Theism is thus endowed with social functions beyond its faith. Synthesizing the three forms of religion in the general public’s context, they all share theism as a common feature; theism is the core of all religions. Religions such as Feuerbach’s “religion of love,” the contemporary “moral” religion, Einstein’s religion that expelled a personal God and urged pastors to become teachers, and the religion established by China’s Zhang Taiyan [2]2 Zhang Taiyan (1868–1936) was a Chinese philologist, philosopher, and revolutionary nationalist. based on “consciousness-only philosophy” [3]3 Consciousness-only philosophy (唯识) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that emphasizes the primacy of consciousness in constructing reality. have all stripped away the theistic core and belong to the category of atheism. They have completely changed the original meaning of religion — incorporating atheism into the concept of religion is like a square circle or white blackness, a logical contradiction, and this article does not adopt such an approach. Some people also refer to the workers’ party guided by Marxism as a “religion,” but that is a political maneuver not worth discussing.

人们在使用名词概念上往往比较模糊，有意或无意地用于解读和作文，差别可以很大，“宗教”这个词汇是其中之一。据说，国内外关于宗教的定义就多到不可胜数，最近李申同志还考察了它的词源，我这里只讲人们当下的三种理解。第一，指宗教观念，包括鬼（灵魂）神（上帝）、彼岸世界（天堂地狱）以及超自然力量（风水八字、特异功能）等，这也是“有神论”涵盖的范围。第二，宗教行为，指宗教观念所表现的行为，诸如祭祀、祈祷、膜拜、仪式、节日以及与之有关的群体性行为，它们往往具有地方的和民族的特点，有些为还转化成民俗。这两类“宗教”体现的是“信仰”自身，属纯粹的信仰范畴，或有文化意义，但不具意识形态和社会属性。就此而言，说宗教具有“群众性”、“民族性”或“长期性”，到共产主义社会也不会消失，我不会反对，因为它们的产生，在很大程度上受制于心理、生理甚至病理的状况以及传统的风习影响。第三，宗教观念和宗教行为被意识形态化和作为社会团体组织起来，即具有了社会性能的完备意义上的“宗教”，它受制于社会基础，服从社会发展的历史规律，有神论也就被赋予了其信仰之外的社会功能。综合大众语境下的三种宗教形态，均以有神论为共性，有神论是所有宗教的内核；像费尔巴哈的“爱”的宗教，现今的“道德”宗教，爱因斯坦驱逐了人格神和劝令牧师改作教师的宗教，以及中国章太炎的以“唯识哲学”建立的宗教，都剥离了有神论内核，而属无神论范畴，完全改变了宗教的本意———将无神论纳入宗教概念，是圆形的方、白色的黑，逻辑矛盾，本文不取。有人把以马克思主义为指导思想的工人政党也称之为“宗教”，那是一种政治动作，不值得讨论。

Regarding the above-mentioned religious organizations with a social nature and the countless sects, religion does not have a long-term nature, only a “historical nature”; it does not have an ethnic character, only a “mutability.” There are numerous examples of this in both history and reality. The most influential “religion” in ancient times was probably Zoroastrianism. It emerged roughly in the 7th-6th centuries BCE, was one of the ideological sources of Christianity, and may have also influenced Buddhism. Its place of origin was Persia (Iran), it flourished in Central Asia, and it was introduced to China during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period [4]4 The Northern and Southern Dynasties period (420–589 CE) was a time of division in Chinese history.. Its founder, Zoroaster, is transliterated in Chinese as “Suluzhi” and is commonly known in the West as “Zarathustra,” hence Nietzsche’s *Thus Spoke Zarathustra* is also translated as *The Sayings of Suluzhi*. What was the outcome of such a hugely influential religion? After the 7th century CE, it essentially perished in Persia and the Central Asian region, and it disappeared from China after the Song Dynasty. It is said that today there are still a very small number or scattered believers in India and elsewhere. This shows that its faith was not limited to the Persian people; the Persian people who once believed in it have long since abandoned it. The Chinese could accept it, and they could equally abandon it. Furthermore, it is said that religion has its own independent laws of emergence and development and cannot be fostered or eliminated by administrative means, but this is not necessarily true either. Buddhism’s homeland is India, but after the 11th-12th centuries, it was essentially driven out of the country. Around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Chinese and foreign Buddhists hoped for its rebirth in India, but to this day it has still not amounted to much. It seems never to have become India’s national religion, yet it has continuously survived and flourished in the Sino-Tibetan and Pali language families. The Central Asian region was once the most developed area for Buddhism. From the 3rd-2nd centuries BCE to the 7th-8th centuries CE, it was essentially a Buddhist sphere of influence, but later it became unified under Islam. Buddhism was essentially eliminated by administrative or even violent means (see A. K. Warder’s *Indian Buddhism*). The stone Buddhas that left some faint traces in Afghanistan were also recently deliberately destroyed.

就上述具有社会性的宗教组织和难以数尽的教派而言，宗教不具有长期性，只有“历史性”；不具民族性，只有“多变性”。这在历史和现实中都有大量的例证。古代影响最大的“宗教”当属琐罗亚斯德教（祆教），它大约产生在公元前7-6世纪，是基督教的思想来源之一，对佛教也可能发生过影响；它的产地是波斯（伊朗），盛行于中亚，南北朝时传入中国。它的教主琐罗亚斯德，中译“苏鲁支”，西方通称“查拉斯图拉”，故尼采所著《苏鲁支语录》亦译作《查拉斯图拉如是说》。影响如此巨大的一种宗教结局如何？公元7世纪之后，基本上从波斯和中亚地带灭亡，中国自宋朝之后也销声匿迹，据说今天在印度等地还有极少数或零星的信仰者。由此可见，它的信仰并不限于波斯民族，信仰过它的波斯民族早已将其丢弃；中国人可以接受，同样可以放弃。又，说宗教有自己独立的产生和发展规律，不可以用行政手段扶植或消灭，也不一定。佛教的故土是印度，11-12世纪以后，已基本上被驱出境外；19-20世纪之际，中外佛教徒曾期望它在印度重生，但至今依然不成气候；它似乎始终没有成为印度的民族宗教，但却在汉藏语系和巴利文语系持续地生存与繁荣。中亚地带曾是佛教最发达的地区，从公元前3-2世纪到公元7-8世纪，那里基本上是佛教的势力范围，但后来却成了伊斯兰的一统天下，佛教基本上是被行政的甚至暴力的手段给消灭的（可参考英国人渥德尔著《印度佛教史》）；在阿富汗还留有些微遗迹的石佛，也在最近被人为地爆除了。

Today, the pace of religion’s emergence and extinction has clearly accelerated — they emerge quickly and perish quickly. As for the “new religious movements,” almost all of them have this attribute of impermanence in emergence and extinction. As for Christianity spreading across the globe and striving to become the state religion of relevant countries or the ethnic religion of relevant peoples — is this not the case? From the Opium War [5]5 The Opium War (1839–1842) was a military conflict between Qing China and Britain, often cited as the beginning of a century of foreign intervention in China., it sought to Christianize China. From the early 20th century, implementing the “Christian Occupation of China” project [6]6 The “Christian Occupation of China” (中华归主) was a missionary movement in the early 20th century aiming to convert China to Christianity. to today’s entry of “theology” into our country’s higher education institutions and national research institutes, it shows that Christianity is by no means content to stop in Western countries as a Western religion; rather, it expects other countries and other peoples to change their non-Christian traditions and adopt it as their state or ethnic religion. Conversely, the decline of Christianity in Europe is already a consensus. A single pedophilia scandal has stripped the Pope of his sacred aura and bankrupted the Church. Huntington [7]7 Samuel P. Huntington (1927–2008) was an American political scientist, author of *Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity*. wrote a book lamenting that Americans, as believers in Anglo-Saxon Protestantism, are asking: “Who are we?” The overall prospects are thus evident. Such examples prove that religion indeed has no essence of its own, nor its own history; its essence and history lie entirely in its social nature. Its laws are governed by the laws of social and historical development. Understanding religion must penetrate into its social base.

到了今天，宗教的生灭速度明显加快，生的快，灭的快；作为“新宗教运动”的宗教，几乎都有这种生灭无常的属性。至于基督宗教遍及全球，而且在努力想成为有关国家的国教或相关民族的族教———不是么，从鸦片战争就想把中国基督教化，从20世纪初实施“中华归主”工程到今天“神学”进入我国高等院校和国家研究机构，表明基督教绝不甘心停止在西方国家，做西方宗教，而是期望他国和他民族改变非基督教的传统，奉它为国教或族教。与此相反，欧洲基督宗教日趋没落，已成共识；一条娈童丑闻，就使教皇的圣光扫地，教会破产；亨廷顿著书哀叹，作为盎格鲁—撒克逊新教信仰的美国人在问：“我们是谁”？其整体前景可知。如此等等，证明宗教确实没有自身的本质，也没有自身的历史，它的本质和历史全在于它的社会性；它的规律就是受社会历史发展的规律所支配。对宗教的认识，必须深入到它的社会基础中去。

How are religious concepts and religious behaviors ideological, thereby manifesting their social nature? This requires support from many empirical sciences. This article can only provide a brief sketch. The major existing world religions can be divided into monotheistic and polytheistic religions. Here, monotheism can be exemplified by Christianity, and polytheism by Buddhism. The core of Christian faith is undoubtedly God, revered as the sole deity, which is also the only undisputed object of reference in its theism. The corresponding religious behaviors would be prayer, sacrifice (sacrifice to God later alienated into offerings to the church), and other verbal and physical acts directly related to God. All of this existed before Christianity was organized. We regard the *Bible* as the completion of Christianity’s organization. It has been circulated for nearly two thousand years and is still regarded by believers as the sole authoritative text. There are many works introducing and appreciating it, and countless theologies have arisen from it, which are still proliferating today. In the past decade or so, a so-called “extra-ecclesial theology” has even emerged in our country, which, together with so-called “religious studies” research, has become quite popular in the “field of religious culture.” However, none of this can serve as a basis for understanding Christianity. Tracing back to the source, one must start with the *Bible*. The characteristic of the *Bible* is that it expands the faith centered on “God” into a doctrinal system expressed in the form of myths and legends, carrying all of Christianity’s complex ideology and serving as the original text from which successive theologies have developed various Christian ideas. This has added or appended countless things to the simple faith in God that have little to do with faith itself. Here, I will only briefly examine the parts particularly closely related to our real life.

宗教观念和宗教行为是如何被意识形态化从而体现它的社会性的？这需要许多实证科学的支持，本文只能作一简略地描绘。现存的世界诸大宗教可以区分为一神教和多神教；这里的一神教即以基督教为例，多神教可以佛教为例。基督教信仰的核心无疑是上帝，被尊为唯一的神，这也是它的有神论指谓的唯一不存在争论的对象；与之相应的宗教行为当是祈祷、祭祀（对神的祭祀后来异化为对教会的奉献）以及其他与神直接关联的语言举止。这一切都存在于基督教被组织起来之前。我们把《圣经》视为基督教组织化的完成，它流传了近两千年，迄今仍为信徒奉为唯一的权威读本。介绍和鉴赏它的作品很多，由此产生的神学无数，现在仍然滋生繁衍；近十多年来，我们国内还兴起了所谓“教外神学”，与所谓“宗教学”研究一起，在“宗教文化领域”相当走红。但这都不能作为认识基督教的根据，追本溯源，都得从《圣经》谈起。《圣经》的特色是把以“神”为核心的信仰扩展成了以神话传说形式表达出来的教义体系，承载着基督教全部复杂的意识形态，并成为历代神学据以发展基督教各类思想的原本，这就给单纯对上帝的信仰，附加或增添了无数与信仰无甚干系的东西———在这里，仅以其中与我们现实生活关系特别密切的部分略作考察。

The opening chapter of the *Bible•Old Testament* is *Genesis*, which mainly records God’s creation of the world and humanity. Note: that the world and humanity are both creations of God is a common feature of monotheistic religions; all can be called “Creator,” the difference lying only in the name of the god. The Chinese translation of the Christian God’s name is “Shangdi” or “Tianzhu,” while the original name is “Yahweh.” The natural world he created is said to be for the purpose of settling humanity and allowing humanity to manage it; as for the purpose of creating humanity, that is unclear. Some say that God’s creation of the world and humanity is only to manifest “God’s life and authority,” “to make the earth the kingdom of God.” Regardless, this establishes the foundational relationship between God and humanity: God is the Father, humanity is God’s children, so believers address each other as brothers and sisters; God is the Lord, humanity is God’s servants, so believers never let the word “Lord” leave their lips and consider themselves humble; God is the Shepherd, humanity is the sheep being shepherded, and church pastors are the专职 personnel who shepherd on God’s behalf; sheep need to depend on the shepherd forever; God is the giver of grace, humanity is the recipient of grace, and humanity must forever be grateful for God’s grace, concretely expressed through confession to church pastors and making offerings. And so on, forming the first layer of Christian doctrine.

《圣经•旧约》的开篇是《创世纪》，主要是记上帝创世造人的——注意：世界和人都是神的创造物，是一神教的共同点，均可以称作“造物主”，差别仅在于神的名称不同；基督教的神的汉译名字是“上帝”或曰“天主”，本名“耶和华”。他所造的自然界，据说是为了安顿人的生存和让人给以管理的；至于造人的目的就不清楚了。有说，神之创世造人只在于显示“神的生命和权柄”，“使地上成为神的国度”。不论怎样，这样就确定了神与人之间的基础关系：神是父，人是神的子女，所以教徒之间即以兄弟姊妹相称；神是主，人是神之仆，所以信徒口不离“主”，自居谦卑；神是牧者，人即是被牧的羔羊，教会牧师就是代神牧人的专职人员；羔羊需要永远依赖牧者；神是施恩者，人是受恩者，人要永远感激神的恩惠，具体化就是向教会牧师忏悔、作奉献。如此等等，形成基督教的第一重教义。

Everyone knows that the first ancestors created by God were Adam and Eve, who lived in the Garden of Eden in heaven. The ancestors did not obey God’s command; they stole and ate the fruit from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” acquired “wisdom,” “their eyes were opened,” and they knew the shame of being naked, thereby angering God, who immediately cast them down to earth, not only “cursing” Eve as a woman but also burdening all of humanity with “original sin.” From then on, God regarded humanity as criminals, and humanity became enemies with God. On one occasion, God became angry and resolved to destroy all his creations, so he sent a great flood to drown everything in the world, but at the last moment showed mercy, preserving Noah’s family and allowing them to be saved in the ark. God’s hatred for humanity is so deep that it makes Christian faith take the “redemption” of humanity as the sole important task of life. The common phrase “I have sinned” in the humility of believers originates from this; while using offerings to atone for sin and selling indulgences became a direct source of income for the church and pastoral personnel. Thus, the theory of “original sin” and the theory of “redemption” became the second layer of basic Christian doctrine. Among the scholars currently pushing to Christianize China, there is a faction that completely negates traditional Chinese culture, their main reason being that the Chinese people since ancient times have not known they have sin and are blindly arrogant.

大家都知道，上帝所造人始祖是亚当和夏娃，生活在天上的伊甸园。始祖没有遵从上帝的嘱咐，偷吃了“分别善恶的树”上的果实，具有了“智慧”，“眼睛明亮了”，知道了赤身露体的羞耻，从而触怒了上帝，立马将他们赶到了地上，不但“诅咒”作为女性的夏娃，而且连带整个人类都负上了“原罪”。从此上帝即视人类为罪犯，人类与上帝结为仇敌——有一次上帝发怒，决心将他的创造物全部毁灭，所以发特大洪水淹没了世上的一切，到了最后一刻突发慈悲，保留了诺亚一家，让他们乘方舟得救。上帝对人类的仇恨是如此之深重，促使基督教信仰把人的“救赎”当成人生的唯一要务。教徒谦卑中的通常语“我有罪”，就是来源于此；而用奉献赎罪，出售赎罪券，则成了教会和神牧人员的直接财源。这样，“原罪”论和“救赎”论，就成了基督教第二重基本教义。当前力促把中国基督教化的学者中有一派是全盘否定中国传统文化的，主要理由就是中国人自古以来不知道自己有罪而盲目自大。

These two fundamental doctrines illustrate a principle: humanity is God’s creation, and God absolutely cannot tolerate humanity possessing wisdom, especially the ability to distinguish good from evil, right from wrong, and beauty from ugliness; human nature is sin, and human life can only crawl on the ground, “obedient like a dog, patient like an angel” (Heine’s words), and cannot stand upright, raise its head, and live with self-respect and independence. From the perspective of us ordinary Chinese, God is used to stupefy the people; only by not “thinking” or lacking “thinking” can the sincerity of faith be guaranteed. Clearly, this kind of doctrine has already gone beyond the scope of theism and the original meaning of faith, adding a unique system of worldview, outlook on life, and values to the object of theistic faith, reflecting specific social relations and secular interests, and also providing more room for adaptation in the social attributes of Christianity.

这两条根本教义说明了一个道理：人是上帝的创造物，神绝对不能忍容人具有智慧，特别是辨别善恶、是非和美丑的能力；人的本性即是罪恶，人生只可以匍匐于地，“像狗一样的顺从，像天使一样忍耐”（海涅语），而不能直起腰、昂起头来自尊自立的生活，这从我们中国俗人来看，上帝就是用来愚民的；只有不“思考”或缺“思考”才能保证信仰的虔诚。很明显，这类教义已经超出有神论的范围和信仰的本义，是给有神论信仰对象增添的一种独特的世界观、人生观和价值观体系，反映着特定的社会关系和世俗利益，也给基督宗教的社会属性提供了更多适应的空间。

*Exodus* contains the famous “Ten Commandments,” which include these words: “I am the LORD your God—You shall have no other gods before me—For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Also recorded: “You shall not permit a sorceress to live—Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the LORD must be destroyed.” [8]8 The biblical quotations in this paragraph are from Exodus 20:2-6, 22:18, and 22:20 (various translations). The “Ten Commandments” (摩西十诫) are a foundational legal and moral code in Judaism and Christianity, given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. The “Rites Controversy” (礼仪之争) was a 17th-18th century dispute within the Catholic Church over whether Chinese converts could continue traditional Confucian ancestor rites, which the Vatican eventually prohibited, damaging missionary efforts in China. Such commandments or precepts add to Christianity an absolute exclusivity and expansiveness toward the outside, and an absolute closedness and cohesiveness toward the inside. These two aspects are both for ensuring a high degree of unity in thought and faith and maintaining a high degree of centralization in church organization. Their actual manifestation is a hostile attitude toward pagans, becoming the internal basis for launching religious wars; internally, they implement extreme ideological tyranny, serving as the classical basis for persecuting heretics and establishing the Inquisition. Based on this, the large-scale burning and killing of witches in the name of “devils” alone was popular for two or three hundred years, reaching its peak from the 15th to the 18th century, while England and Scotland did not formally end it until the 19th century. According to Russell’s estimate, millions of people were persecuted because of the commandment “You shall not permit a sorceress to live.” As for implementing “Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the LORD must be destroyed,” its effect must inevitably be belligerence. The so-called “Crusades,” wars against Muslim states, were fought eight times over nearly 200 years (1095–1291); the recent Iraq War was also declared a “Second Crusade” in a “slip of the tongue” by the U.S. president. As for conflicts among Christian sects themselves, from the unified Catholic Church splitting into the Eastern Orthodox Church, and then the Reformation splitting off Protestantism again, each of these splits was invariably accompanied by extreme bloodshed. For example, in the 17th century, “during Cromwell’s time, English Protestants slaughtered at least 30,000 Irish people. To cover up their atrocities, they fabricated a myth claiming it was revenge for Irish Catholics killing 30,000 Protestants.” This hatred continues to this day, with shadows still lingering. During the spread of Christianity to the Qing dynasty, the so-called Rites Controversy occurred; in the early 20th century, Western Christianity launched another movement to Christianize China, which triggered a nationwide anti-Christian movement. Behind it was colonialism, and its banner came from its expansive and exclusive doctrines—the practice of expansion and exclusivity is discrimination, unlimited expansion, and the final form is cultural aggression and bloody war.

《出埃及记》中载有著名的“摩西十诫”，其中有这样的话：“我是耶和华你的神——除了我以外你不可有别的神———我耶和华你的神，是忌邪的神。恨我的，我必追讨他的罪，自父及子，直到三代四代。爱我守我诫命的，我必向他们发慈爱，直到千代。”另记：“行邪的女人，不可容他存活——祭祀别的神，不单单祭祀耶和华的，那人必要灭绝。”这类诫命或诫条，给基督宗教添加的是对外的绝对排他性及扩张性，和对内的绝对封闭性及内聚性，这二者都是为了保障思想信仰上的高度统一，维护教会组织上的高度集中，实际表现则是对异教徒持敌对态度，成为发动宗教战争的内在依据；对内实施思想的极端专制，是迫害异端，成立宗教裁判所的经典依据。据此，仅以“魔鬼”名义大规模烧杀女巫就流行了二三百年，从15到18世纪是高潮，而英格兰和苏格兰到19世纪才算正式结束。据罗素估计，由于“行邪的女人，不可容他存活”这一诫条而受迫害者达几百万人。至于贯彻“祭祀别的神，不单单祭祀耶和华的，那人必要灭绝”，其效用必然好战成性。所谓“十字军东征”对穆斯林国家的战争前后8次，打了近200年（1095-1291年）；新近的伊拉克战争，在美国总统的“口误”中也宣布为“第二次十字军东征”；至于基督教自身的教派之争，从统一的天主教分裂出东正教，而后宗教改革再次分裂出耶稣新教；这每次分裂不带有十足的血腥是没有的。举例说，17世纪“在克伦威尔时期，英国的新教徒至少屠杀了三万爱尔兰人，他们为了掩盖自己的兽行，就捏造一个神话，说什么这是为了对爱尔兰天主教徒杀戮三万新教徒实行的报复”，这仇恨延续至今，仍有阴影笼罩。在基督教向清朝传播时，曾发生过所谓礼仪之争；20世纪初，西方基督教又发动了一次基督教占领中国的运动，由此触发了全国规模的非基督教运动，背后是殖民主义，旗号就出在它的扩张而又排他性的教义上———扩张排他性的实践，就是歧视、无限扩展，最后形式即是文化侵略与流血战争。

Its “closedness” lies in strict control over believers, employing every possible means from ideological brainwashing to organizational punishment. “Atheism” is the greatest crime, and “heresy” cannot escape the death penalty either, while the enslavement of science is also common knowledge. Of course, religious trials involving life are now difficult to sustain openly in the West, but that does not mean other monotheistic religions do not continue to use them in some places. Even just the power of “awe” generated by doctrinal intimidation and temptation is rare in today’s open world and is terrifying enough. Some scholars euphemistically call this “cohesion” and regard it as a virtue that contemporary Chinese culture should also imitate—one wonders what kind of thinking this is. The *New Testament* has some changes, especially as promoted by “Protestantism.” For instance, the *Old Testament* emphasizes revenge: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” is its famous saying; the *New Testament* does the opposite: “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also”; the *Old Testament* says: “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy,” while the *New Testament* says: “Love your enemies”—thus “tolerance” and “love” became the loudest and most popular slogans of Protestantism’s “Gospel” preaching. Among them, “Love your neighbor as yourself” is also regarded together with the Confucian “Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself” as the golden rule of morality. Apart from the test of practice—“listen to their words and observe their deeds”—it is also worth looking at the actual content of the original text and meaning. The *Gospel of Matthew* is the first book of the *New Testament*; let us take this book as an example: “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

它的“封闭性”，在于严格控制教徒，从思想洗脑到组织处罚，无所不用其极。“无神论”是最大的罪名，“异端”也逃脱不了死刑，而科学之被奴婢化，也是常识了。当然，现在要动用关乎生命的宗教审判在西方是难以公开存在了，但不等于其他一神教不在某些地方继续沿用。仅就教义上的恐吓和诱惑所具有的“敬畏”力，在当今开放的世界也是很少见，也够恐怖的。有学者美其名曰“内聚力”，当作今天的中国文化也应当模仿的美德，真不知是何种思维。《新约》有了一些变化，特别为“新教”所推崇。譬如《旧约》强调复仇：“以眼还眼，以牙还牙”是它的名句；《新约》则反其道而行之：“有人打你的右脸，连左脸也转过来由他打”；《旧约》说：“当爱你的邻舍，恨你的仇敌”，《新约》说：“要爱你们的仇敌”——于是“宽容”和“爱”就成了新教传播“福音”最响亮也最赢得人心的口号。其中“爱人如己”还与儒家的“己所不欲，勿施于人”一起被视作道德的黄金律。这除了实践的检验——“听其言观其行”之外，不妨也看看原文原义的实际内容是什么。《马太福音》是《新约》的第一卷，我们就以此卷为例：“耶稣对他说，你要尽心、尽性、尽意，爱主你的上帝，这是诫命中的第一，且是最大的。其次也相仿，就是爱人如己。这两条诫命是律法和先知一切道理的总纲。”

This “first” and also prerequisite is to love God; your love should not be selfish, limited to self-interest, but should be extended to others, shared with them; therefore, if you love God, you should also let others love God; if you do not love going to hell but love going to heaven for eternal life, you should also let others understand this kind of doctrine and believe in this religion. By the same logic, “love your enemy” can also be understood in its true meaning, as well as why this is called the “sum of all teachings” of Christianity. There is a song now — “Let the World Be Filled with Love” — this is a wish of us ordinary people, and it is fundamentally different in principle from the Christian “universal love.” This is not my arbitrary judgment; there is also scriptural evidence — Jesus said: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law — a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”

这“第一”的，也是作为前提的，乃是爱上帝；你的这种爱不应该自私，仅限于利己，而应该同时施之于人，与他人同享，所以你爱上帝，也应该让他人爱上帝；你不爱下地狱，而爱上天堂永生，也应该让他人懂得这类教义，信仰这种宗教。如此之类，“爱人如己”就等同于传教，成为传教的一种情感付出。同样道理，也可以理解“爱你的仇敌”的真实意义，以及为什么说这是基督教“一切道理的总纲”。现在有个歌子——“让世界充满爱”，这是我们普通人的一种愿望，与基督教“普世的爱”是有原则差别的。这不是我的武断，也有经文为证——耶稣说：“我来，并不是叫地上太平，乃是叫地上动刀兵。因为我来，是叫人与父亲生疏，女儿与母亲生疏，媳妇与婆婆生疏。人的仇敌就是自己家里的人。爱父母过于爱我的，不配做我的门徒；爱女儿过于爱我的，不配做我的门徒。不背着他的十字架跟从我的，也不配做我的门徒。得着生命的，将要失丧生命；为我失丧生命的，将要得着生命。”“凡为我的名撇下房屋或是兄弟、姐妹、父亲、母亲（妻子）、儿女田地的，必将得着百倍，并且承受永生。”

Scholars who study religious ethics should not overlook this kind of content in the New Testament of the Bible. If even the relationships between one’s own parents, children, brothers, and sisters must be alienated, how can one speak of the universality of love? If brotherly and sisterly relationships can only exist within the church, or if the only recognized father is God, does that kind of “love” not amount to declaring all non-Christians as enemies — “a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household” — this assertion itself is chilling. The best way to “love your enemy” is to make your relatives and friends, including your neighbors, all convert to Christianity and believe in God.

研究宗教伦理学的学者不应该忽视《圣经•新约》的这类内容。假定连自己的父母子女兄弟姐妹之间的关系都必须疏离，何谈其爱的普世性？假若兄弟姐妹的关系只能存在于教内，或承认唯一的父是上帝，那种“爱”不是等于宣布对非基督教信仰者都是仇敌么———“人的仇敌就是自己家里的人”，这一断语本身就令人毛骨悚然。“爱你的仇敌”的最佳途径，就是让你的亲朋好友包括你的邻居全去皈依基督教，信仰上帝。

In the New Testament, exclusivity and closedness not only did not disappear but were strengthened, strengthened to the point of hostility toward the family, estrangement from loved ones, with only total devotion to Christianity offering a way to survive — for the sake of faith, even death is life, temporary death in exchange for eternal life. Correspondingly, this adds the mission that believers must preach and teach. Jesus said: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

在《新约》里，排他性和封闭性不仅没有消失，而且强化了，强化到从仇视家庭、背离亲人，唯有全身心地依附基督教才有生路的程度——为了信仰，即使死，也是生，暂时的死，换得永恒的生。与此相应，是更增添了教徒必须传教布道的使命。耶稣说：“天上地下所有的权柄都赐给我了。所以你们要去，使万民作我的门徒，奉父子圣灵的名，给他们施洗。凡我所吩咐你们的都教训他们遵守，我就常与你们同在，直到世界的末了。”

The Gospel of Mark also repeats this teaching: “He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.’ After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.” Some of our scholars who are now keen to promote Christianity as a “universal religion” probably derive from this kind of teaching — as believers, whether willing or not, they must simultaneously carry out the work of missionaries. Thus, if all believers and their scholars truly fulfill this, the ideological prohibition would become truly impenetrable, watertight, and it would be strange if it did not become rigid and lifeless. This is why people call the Middle Ages the Dark Ages, and I think there is good reason for it, even though some scholars talk endlessly about the “light” of the Middle Ages, trying to rehabilitate it. The atheism that arose in the West since the Renaissance was mainly directed against Christianity, striving to liberate people from the bondage of Christian theocracy and medieval theology; its achievements were the development of science and democracy, the demise of feudalism, and the establishment of bourgeois civil society. But the new type of society was still built on the foundation of class antagonism; Christianity underwent a thoroughgoing reform, but its nature did not change, the Bible remained the same Bible, only the objects of its bondage and service had changed — people moved from bondage to theocracy to bondage to capital, and theology, having served theocracy, now changed to serve capital. Thus, to struggle against this kind of religion adapted to this society, Marxism emerged.

《马可福音》也重复了这一教诫：“你们往普天下去，传福音给万民听。信而受洗的必然得救，不信的必被定罪——主耶稣和他们说完了话，后来被接到天上，坐在上帝的右边。门徒出去，到处宣传福音，主和他们同工，用神迹随着，证实所传的道。”我们现在的一些热衷于宣传基督教为“普世宗教”的学者，大约就来自这类教诫———作为教徒，不论你愿意还是不愿意，必须同时作着传教士的事业。这样，全体信徒及其学者们若真的履行起来，那思想的禁制真成了针插不进，水泼不进，不凝固、不死亡，那才叫怪呢。人们之所以称中世纪为黑暗时代，我看很有道理，尽管有学者在把中世纪的“光明”说得天花乱坠，替它平反。西方自文艺复兴以来兴起的无神论，针对的主要是基督教，力求从基督教的神权奴役和中世纪神学束缚中解放出来，其成果是科学与民主的发达，封建主义的灭亡，资产阶级公民社会的确立。但新的社会类型，依旧建立在阶级对立的基础上，基督教经过脱胎换骨的改革，但本性没有变化，《圣经》依旧还是那部《圣经》，只是奴役和服务的对象变了———人们从神权的奴役改受资本的奴役，神学从为神权服务，也就改作为资本服务，于是为了与这类社会性质的宗教作斗争，有了马克思主义的产生。

I classify Buddhism as a polytheistic religion because it has no single sacred canon; its Tripitaka of sutras, vinaya, and abhidharma, in Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan, is immeasurably vast. Its monasteries may be found everywhere, but they are not subordinate to one another, each acting on its own. The deities it believes in, as well as other objects of worship such as scriptures, pagodas, and masters (living Buddhas), are also vastly different. This shows that although it is listed as a world religion, it is not unified in thought, belief, or organization. The only commonality is the insistence on karmic retribution and reincarnation, self-caused and self-received, not acknowledging or even opposing a single creator god; in theory, it advocates the “doctrine of dependent origination” and opposes “monocausalism.” One of its major characteristics is that it integrates wherever it spreads, including incorporating various deities and spirits into its belief system; therefore, internally it eliminates wrong views, externally it opposes heretics, and overall its teachings are moderate and its forms of development peaceful. But it cannot be denied that it also possesses the inherent exclusivity and closedness of religion, and its social nature can equally lead to religious discrimination and religious conflict. The earliest Buddhist scripture to reach China, the Sutra of Forty-Two Sections, defines the human body as a “vessel of suffering” and the family as a “cage,” regarding abandoning wife and children to become a monk as “noble” — such pessimism and world-weariness; the famous Mahaparinirvana Sutra regards the icchantikas [9]9 In Mahayana Buddhism, icchantika (一阐提) refers to a being who is said to lack the capacity for enlightenment or to have cut off all roots of goodness, often considered beyond redemption. as enemies, and the Bodhisattva Precept Code deems it blameless to kill those who slander and oppose the Mahayana — although these are extreme examples, they may reflect that the struggle between Buddhism and external religions in history was also very cruel. However, after Buddhism entered mainland China, its teachings and precepts underwent fundamental changes; ethically, it had to adapt to Confucian concepts, the view that icchantikas also possess Buddha-nature and can become Buddhas became mainstream, while precepts were self-formulated, and both Mahayana and Hinayana vinaya were reformed. Buddhism in Japan is different again from that in China; it once possessed armed forces and experienced sectarian wars. Tibetan Buddhism once served as an important link connecting the Han, Tibetan, Mongol, Manchu, and other ethnic groups, but the long-term system of theocracy made it a historical reaction; democratic reform liberated a million serfs and also gave Tibetan Buddhism a new life; however, to eliminate its influence and fully realize the democratic principle of separation of religion and politics, there is still interference from hostile forces to this day. These all stem from the social nature of religion, things added on beyond belief.

我把佛教作为多神信仰的宗教，在于它没有唯一的圣典，就其经律论三藏而言，巴利文和梵文、汉文和藏文，多得不可胜数。它的寺院可能遍天下，但却互不隶属，各行其是。它所信仰的神祗以及经书、塔庙、法师（活佛）等其他崇拜对象，也是千差万别。这说明，它虽然被列为世界性宗教，但在思想上、信仰上和组织上都是不统一的。唯一的共性，是坚持业报轮回，自作自受，不承认甚至反对能够创世造人的唯一神；在理论上则倡“缘起说”，反对“一因论”。它的一大特色是流行到哪里就融入到哪里，包括收容种种神祗和鬼怪进入它的信仰体系，所以它内祛邪见，外反外道，总体上教义是温和的，发展形式是和平的，但绝不能否认它同时也具宗教固有的排他性和封闭性，它的社会性同样能够导致宗教歧视和宗教冲突。来华最早的佛经《四十二章经》定人身为“苦具”，家庭为“牢笼”，以弃妻子出家为“高尚”，其悲观厌世如此；著名的《大般涅经》视“一阐提”为仇敌，《菩萨戒本》认定诛杀诽谤和反对大乘者无罪，虽是极端的例子，可能反映了历史上佛教与外教的斗争也是十分残酷。不过佛教进入中国内地，教义和戒律都有了根本性变化，伦理上要适应儒家观念，“一阐提”亦具佛性，亦可成佛的主张成了主流，而戒律则自行制定，大乘戒和小乘律都被改造了。佛教在日本又与中国不同，它曾拥有武装，发生过教派战争。藏传佛教曾作为汉藏蒙满等诸多民族连结的重要纽带，但长期的政教合一体制，已经使其变成历史的反动，民主改革解放了百万农奴，也使藏传佛教得到新生；然而要肃清它的影响，彻底实现政教分离的民主原则，迄今仍有敌对势力的干预。这些，都属于宗教的社会性使然，是在信仰之外被附加进去的东西。

IV. The Historical Role and Current Tasks of Scientific Atheism

四、科学无神论的历史作用和当前任务

From a Western perspective, the existence of scientific atheism as a mode of thought is concentratedly reflected in the fact that scientific rationality has come to dominate the realm of modern human thought, while religion itself is placed under the scrutiny and judgment of scientific rationality; as a mode of existence, it is reflected in the degree and speed of societal secularization, which has squeezed religious life to the point where it must be thoroughly changed or even become unsustainable. Religious feeling, religious ethics, and religious morality are being replaced by interpersonal feeling, human ethics, social morality, and even legal provisions. The era when religion encompassed all disciplines and commanded all ways of life began to disintegrate 200 years ago; now the territory left to it is meager and countable, and the rapid development of science, education, and philosophy makes religious theology appear increasingly petty and insignificant. Some relics have entered museums or are preserved as cultural artifacts; some religious practices and religious festivals are increasingly passed down as traditional customs: the status and role of gods have basically been replaced by the status and role of humans. In recent decades, there has indeed been a certain degree of religious resurgence in different regions, but a brief analysis shows that this is mainly not due to theism playing a role, but to its social functions being artificially elevated and strengthened — its theism is being used by certain countries and certain groups as a means to seek political power and economic interests, manifesting a regression of civilization, a regression of history.

从西方看，科学无神论作为一种思维方式的存在，集中反映在科学理性已经占据现代人类思维领域的支配地位，宗教自身则被放置在科学理性的视线和评判之下；作为生活方式的存在，则是社会世俗化的程度和速度，将宗教生活挤压到必须彻底改变以至难以为继的地位。宗教感情、宗教伦理、宗教道德，正在被人际感情、人间伦理和社会道德、甚至法律条文所替代。宗教曾经包容一切学科、统帅全部生活方式的时代，早在200年前就开始瓦解了，如今给它剩余的地盘了了可数，科学、教育和哲学突飞猛进的发展，越显得宗教神学的渺小和微不足道。一些遗迹已经进入博物馆或作为文物被保存起来，一些宗教举止和宗教节日，越来越作为传统习俗而流传：神的地位和作用基本上已被人的地位和作用所取代。近数十年来，在不同地区宗教确有不同程度的复归模样，但稍作分析可见，这主要不是它的有神论在起作用，而是它的社会性能在被人为地抬高和加强———它的有神论在被某些国家和某些集团当作谋取政治势力和经济利益的手段，呈现出一种文明的倒退，历史的倒退。

This kind of situation urgently requires a comprehensive assessment and discussion, and it must be closely linked to the overall situation of international relations and the social changes in the relevant countries — such as why international terrorism, religious extremism, and ethnic separatism have become global problems. Why do the local wars and social upheavals that have already occurred and are ongoing always involve religion and occur with such frequency? We are not capable of making a comprehensive assessment and analysis of such matters, but in examining the social functions of religion, they are absolutely a background that cannot be ignored. The current state of religious and theistic activities in our country can also illustrate some problems. Reform and opening up have brought our country comprehensive development on a long-term basis, with unprecedented increases in productive forces and national power, unprecedented improvements in people’s livelihoods, unprecedented cultural flourishing, and unprecedented degrees of freedom for citizens. At the same time, dregs have floated to the surface, and overseas penetration has also become rampant. The emergence of evil cults like

这类情况，亟需做全面的评估和探讨，而且必须与国际关系的整体形势和相关国家的社会变化紧密联系起来——诸如国际恐怖主义、宗教极端主义、民族分裂主义为什么会成为全球性问题？已经发生和正在进行中的局部战争与社会动乱为什么总有宗教的参与而且频发不已？如此之类，我们没有能力做出全面的估量和分析，但在考察宗教的社会性能方面，却是绝对不容忽略的背景。以我国当前的宗教和有神论的活动状况，也颇能说明一些问题。改革开放使我们国家取得长足的全面发展，生产力和国力的增强空前，民生的改善空前，文化的繁荣空前，公民的自由度空前。与此同时，沉滓浮起，海外渗透，也猖狂起来。像“法轮功”这类邪教的滋生，“藏独”、“疆独”这类分裂势力的涌现，以及海外基督教向文化教育领域及边远地区的扩展，都是前所少有的动态。在这种咄咄逼人的形势下，有相当一批党员知识分子和党政干部，把宗教当成维护社会稳定、防止犯罪的精神因素，将形形色色的有神论当作不可触动的禁区，而无神论则罪不容赦，“宗教”一词变得真的神圣不可冒犯起来。这有些令人不知今日身在何时、何处，天下域中谁主沉浮。其实，中央要求加强无神论的研究和宣传教育的精神，始终是明确的，不动摇的。为了清除思想障碍，近来还特别强调，无神论研究和宣传教育是一项长期任务，这与贯彻党的宗教信仰自由政策并不矛盾。我想首先从这里谈起。

What is “freedom of religious belief”? This concept, too, is Western in origin. It was originally a slogan of the Western bourgeois revolution against the theocratic political rule of feudalism, demanding liberation from the shackles of religion, and later became an important principle in the founding of their states and constitutions. Marxism regards it as one of the outstanding achievements of the development of human civilization, and the working-class party takes it as a basic policy for handling religious issues. Today, it has become a civil right stipulated in our country’s Constitution. Its original meaning is to ensure that religious belief becomes a matter entirely of individual choice, free from interference by any person or organization and from the influence of external forces such as politics and economics. Therefore, freedom of religious belief itself includes the freedom to believe in no religion and to hold atheist views, thereby unifying it with the various freedoms—especially the right to freedom of thought—that the Constitution guarantees to citizens, rather than creating contradiction and conflict. Since the United States promulgated the International Religious Freedom Act, specifically to promote the development of non-governmental religious forces in countries outside the United States, for some Chinese people, religious freedom has become the “first freedom,” and atheism has become the primary enemy of “religion.” However, the International Religious Freedom Act is only legislation that the United States imposes on the “international” community; the United States itself is not subject to it. This is because the United States, like Europe, not only drives religion out of the educational sphere and restricts its freedom, but also has increasingly powerful non-religious organizations and atheist currents of thought.

什么是“宗教信仰自由”？这一观念也是西方的。它本是西方资产阶级革命反对封建主义神权政治统治，要求从宗教枷锁中解放出来的口号，而后成了它们建国立宪的一条重要原则，马克思主义把它视为人类文明发展的优秀成果之一，工人阶级政党将它作为处理宗教问题的基本政策，而今则成为我国《宪法》规定的公民权利。它的本意，是保证宗教信仰成为完全由个人自主选择的事情，免受任何个人或组织的干涉和政治经济等外在力量的左右。因此，宗教信仰自由本身就含有不信仰任何宗教和持有无神论的自由，从而与《宪法》规定公民享有各种自由——尤其是思想自由的权利统一起来，而不是矛盾和冲突。自从美国公布《国际宗教自由法案》，专门用来推动美国以外各个国家非政府组织的宗教势力的发展，在某些中国人那里，宗教自由就变成了“第一自由”，无神论也就成了“宗教”第一位的敌人。但是，《国际宗教自由法案》只是美国给“国际”的立法，美国自身是不在其列的；因为美国与欧洲一样，不但把宗教从教育领域中驱赶出去，限制了它的自由，也同样存在日益强大的非宗教组织和无神论思潮。

There has never been a religious problem in Chinese history. In the realm of belief, whether one believed in a particular god or did not believe in any god, or even wanted to create a new god or discard an existing one, there was no force that would interfere arbitrarily. Fierce anti-religionists and devout believers could coexist peacefully side by side; religious discrimination was extremely rare, there was no religious persecution, and still less were there religious wars. As everyone knows, Emperor Wu of Liang was a famous emperor who was devoted to Buddhism, while his subject Fan Zhen was a champion of anti-Buddhism who wrote the “Treatise on the Extinction of the Spirit.” The emperor, on the charge that Fan Zhen had “violated the classics and betrayed the Way,” mobilized over sixty princes, ministers, high monks, and great scholars to write articles attacking him. Yet the result, aside from leaving a commendable record in the history of Chinese thought and culture, was that Fan Zhen suffered no harm to his person or mind; he continued to hold office and even seemed to be promoted. The so-called “Three Wu and One Zong” incidents,[n] which were most offensive to Buddhism, certainly involved disputes between Buddhism and Daoism, but in Chinese historiography, these were merely cases where the expansion of Buddhism had seriously threatened the stability of the state; they were political measures, not religiously motivated actions. In other words, there was no reality of unfreedom of religious belief in Chinese history, and therefore there was no necessity to cry out for freedom of religious belief.

中国历史上从来不存在宗教问题。在信仰领域，信仰哪个神或不信仰哪个神，甚至要造个什么神，丢弃哪个神，没有什么力量横加干涉；激烈的反神者和虔诚的信神者可以和平地并存共生，极少发生宗教歧视，没有宗教迫害，更没有宗教战争。大家知道，梁武帝是以佞佛著名的皇帝，他的臣属范缜则是著《神灭论》反佛的健将；他曾以范缜“违经叛道”的罪名发动王公大臣高僧大德60余人撰文围剿，结果除了给中国思想文化史上留下这样一笔值得称道的记录之外，范缜的身心没有受到任何影响，他的官照做，似乎还得到重用。最为佛教反感的所谓“三武一宗”事件，固然涉及到释、道之争，但在中国史学那里，这只是佛教的膨胀已经严重地威胁到了国家的稳定，是政治措施，不是宗教动机。就是说，中国历史上不存在宗教信仰不自由的现实，因而也就没有呼喊宗教信仰自由的必须。

Nevertheless, the state has always exercised strict management over religion. There are at least three boundaries that religion cannot cross: First, it must not harm the lives and property of the people, including their health and wealth. Second, it must not endanger social order or the public interest, including spreading fallacies to deceive the masses, gathering crowds to cause trouble, or extorting money and engaging in debauchery. Third, it must not threaten national security, especially by colluding with officials, participating in or interfering in politics, or plotting rebellion and treason. Any violation of these three boundaries has generally been dealt with by administrative means, including suppression. It is precisely for this reason that the separation of religion from the state and the separation of religion from education have been the historical norm in our country. Religion emerged as a serious problem only with the spread of Christianity in China following the Opium War. Religious conflicts that had never occurred before now arose—these were the unending “missionary cases,”[n] culminating in the Boxer Uprising and the Eight-Nation Alliance’s bloody sack of Beijing. As it entered modern history, Chinese religion from the very beginning carried a strong political connotation and became one of the driving forces of the Chinese people’s national-democratic revolution. The fact that the May Fourth Movement was guided by “science” and “democracy,” followed by the nationwide “anti-Christian movement” and “anti-religion movement,” is all related to this historical background. Therefore, in the Chinese context, “freedom of religious belief” particularly emphasizes the strict restriction of religious interference in politics and its entry into the sphere of national education.

尽管如此，国家对宗教的管理始终是严格的。至少有三条界限，宗教是不可以逾越的：第一，不能损害百姓的身家性命，包括人的健康和财物。第二，不能危害社会秩序和公共利益，包括妖言惑众，聚众闹事，敛财盗色。第三，不能威胁国家安全，特别是勾结官吏，参政干政，谋逆造反。凡触及这三条，大都以行政手段包括镇压在内的方式解决。正因为如此，政教分离，宗教与教育分离，是我们国家的历史常态。宗教作为一个严重的问题突出出来，是随着鸦片战争基督教在中国的传播开始的：从来没有发生的宗教冲突发生了，这就是延续不断的“教案”，直到义和团运动与八国联军血洗北京。进入近代史的中国宗教，一开始就带有强烈的政治涵义，成为中国人民民族民主革命的动因之一，“五四运动”之所以有“科学”与“民主”做主导，接着全国性的“非基督教运动”和“非宗教运动”，都与这样的历史大背景有关。因此，在中国语境下的“宗教信仰自由”特别强调严格限制宗教干预政治和进入国民教育领域的含义。

The Communist Party of China inherits the Marxist view of religion and adopts a newer perspective on the issue of religious belief: First, whether or not to believe in religion is a right of citizens, and no force is permitted to interfere. Second, theism does not correspond to reality; as a party responsible to the people, it has the obligation to reveal the truth of the matter and to conduct propaganda and education in atheism. This legal protection and respect for citizens is unified with the principle of serving the people and being responsible to them, and it particularly embodies the consistency between freedom of religious belief and the propagation and study of atheism. Third, beginning with Mao Zedong’s “Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan,” religious issues have been incorporated into the overall tasks and guiding principles of China’s revolution and construction. Forces that use the name of religion to engage in reactionary political activities are unambiguously combated, while the beliefs of the masses are treated with sincere respect, because Mao believed that the masses, through the practice of revolution and construction, through education and self-education, would resolve the issue on their own, and he opposed doing things for them that they should do for themselves. “Drawing the bow without releasing the arrow, as if leaping into the air.”[n] Theism is a matter of the subjective spiritual world; from the perspective of historical materialism, one must seek the causes and solutions from the social roots that breed it. Therefore, Marxist atheism must be built on the foundation of trusting and relying on the masses, and it plays its role in actually improving the material and cultural conditions of the people and raising their scientific spirit and level of understanding. In this regard, atheism is not merely negative, not limited to opposing various forms of theism; more importantly, it is positive, aimed at establishing a correct mode of thinking and attitude toward life, and at constructing a way of life different from religious life—a way of life in which people, using their own minds and hands, adopting scientific and educational methods, create a healthy, beautiful, happy, harmonious, and freely developing life, one that is also full of human care and embodies human warmth. In this way, scientific atheism inevitably becomes an organic component of the scientific socialist movement, linking up with the future communist ideal.

中国共产党继承马克思主义的宗教观，对待宗教信仰问题有更新的视角：第一，是否信仰宗教属于公民的权利，不允许任何势力干涉；第二，有神论不符合实际，作为对人民负责任的政党，有义务道出事情的真相，进行无神论的宣传教育。这种法权上对公民的尊重和保护，与为人民服务和对人民负责的宗旨统一起来，特别体现了宗教信仰自由与宣传和研究无神论的一致性。第三，从毛泽东的《湖南农民考察报告》开始，就把宗教问题纳入中国革命和建设的总体任务和方针路线之内，毫不含糊地打击假宗教之名从事反动政治活动的各种势力，而对人民大众的信仰则采取由衷的尊重态度，因为他相信群众在革命和建设实践过程中通过教育和自我教育，会自行解决，反对越俎代庖。“引而不发，跃如也”。有神论是主观精神世界问题，从唯物史观看，必须从滋生它的社会根源上寻找原因和解决的出路。因此，马克思主义无神论必须建立在相信和依靠人民大众的基础上，在实际地改善人民群众的物质与文化的条件和提高科学精神与认识水平上，发挥作用。就此而言，无神论不是消极的，不限于反对种种有神论；更重要的是积极的，是为了建立一种正确的思维方式与生活态度的，是为了建设一种与宗教生活不同的生活方式———用人自己的头脑和双手，采取科学与教育的方法，创造一种健康美好、幸福和谐、自由发展的，同时也是充满着人性关怀、体现着人情温馨的生活方式。这样，科学无神论必然成为科学社会主义运动的有机成分，与未来的共产主义理想衔接在一起。

Stripping faith of its accretions and restoring purity to faith is one of the tasks of scientific atheism; the means for this is freedom of religious belief. For the state, it must guarantee citizens’ freedom of religious belief; at the same time, it must guide the social character of religion in a sound direction and do its utmost to weaken the social consciousness and social functions that have been imposed upon it — that is, to protect the core of faith from external interference, to weaken its exclusivist ideology and social functions, while enhancing human dignity and the function of human self-reliance, raising national consciousness and civic consciousness, and winning over and drawing in the broad mass of believers to participate in productive labor, including efforts to improve their own living conditions, so as to jointly build a fine homeland and country. Only when one is economically self-sufficient can one have independence of personality; only when one has independence of personality can one effectively shake off the shackles of religion.

把信仰从其添加物中剥离出来，还信仰以清净是科学无神论的任务之一，手段即是宗教信仰自由。对于国家而言，必须保障公民的宗教信仰自由；同时要引导它的社会性向良好的方向发展，并尽力弱化它被强加上去的社会意识和社会作用——亦即保护它的信仰核心不受外力干涉，弱化它的排他性的意识形态与社会功能，而提高人性的尊严和人的自立的职能，提高国民意识和公民意识，争取和吸收广大信徒参与包括改善自己生活状况在内的生产劳动，共建美好的家园和国家。只有经济上自给了，才有人格上的独立；只有人格上独立了，才能有效地摆脱宗教的束缚。

References:

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