Is Socialism A Religion ….

[naomi24]

…. with a vicious, hostile spirit?  According to actor Tom Conti it is.  At one time I wouldn't have agreed with him but over the past several years and more so of late I've come around that that way of thinking.  Is that an accurate description?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Conti

[Atheist]

I disagree with Tom Conti.

[Khandro]

No, it's an a priori arrived at ideology.

[ToraToraTora]

It's not a religion but it does have a similar way of brainwashing people into thinking it can work despite overwhelming evidence that it does not and cannot.

[davebro3]

Not a religion - has it ever been tried anywhere? States seem to be capitalist, communist or totalitarian.

[Old_Geezer]

It obviously isn't. It has no God, nor does it pontificate on where we came from or are going to.

[rowanwitch]

A substitute for religion maybe, has its prophets and adherents,  believes it is the only valid way, and treats non believers as lesser beings. And like many religions started out as a few possibly good ideas but turned them into sacred cows even when those ideas no longer fitted in a changed society

[ynnafymmi]

One of the leading socialists and humanists in the world at the time Joseph Stalin turned out to be a worse fascist than Hitler.Socialism,bah.

[Untitled]

"socialism" is a vast umbrella term that includes a huge number of different political philosophies... some of these might be spiritual/religious in nature and some were used as state ideologies for the purposes of control... some look quite similar to capitalism on the surface and others are just left wing parliamentary movements... going to the other extreme some of them are anarchistic or community based

it's an ignorant thing indeed to call "socialism" a religion and rather suggests that tom conti doesn't do a lot if reading. socialism does not have a cosmology or necessarily contain assertions about the nature of reality or the soul... many socialists are not even atheists and belong fully to a religion

[Ellipsis]

Yeah, right, he don't want phock with you ...

[naomi24]

Gulliver, if you want another break away carry on.

[naomi24]

It's certainly an obsession for some.

[youngmafbog]

It certainly embodies some of the characteristics of one.

I dont think religion needs to have a god though, the definitoin here doesnt seem to thing so either.  

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/religion

the belief in and worship of a god or gods, or any such system of belief and worship:

or

an activity that someone is extremely enthusiastic about and does regularly:

[Khandro]

God does not feature nor is it denied in Buddhism. The Dalai Lama has said, 'There may be a God, there may not be a God, but either way you have to find your own salvation here on Earth.'

(My translation from memory.)

[tomus42]

No. It's a political ideology.

One could say the same about right wing ideologies.

Both have fervent and sometimes vicious and hostile followers, but that's where the similarity with religion ends.

[gulliver1]

Another non story nothing to see here.

[Untitled]

religion doesn't need a god but it does need metaphysics... religion is concerned primarily with the spiritual and while there are christian or muslim or buddhist socialists i do not think socialism has anything at all to say about the soul or even necessarily about morality... you can make socialist arguments both in favour of genocide or in favour of wealth taxes... socialism itself does not have a moral stance because it isn't really about morality... how can it be a religion?

[fiveleaves]

Why does no one ask Is Capitalism a religion?

A religion worships a God or Gods. What Gods are being worshipped by Socialists?

I dont know who you talk to, but in everyday life in the UK I meet very few real Socialists, although I am sure they are out there