Ignorance and superstition in any form will not serve the socialist movement. But think about it : " a staunch position against religion " would put ANY socialist party or organization in opposition to the religious instincts of the human race -which will not go away by GOD HATER road shows for the masses.
The biggest mistake of the old Soviet Union was to declare itself OFFICIALLY ATHEIST. That turned off most of old Europe and many pious Catholics and Christians all over the world.
Trotsky alludes to a probably FALSE story of the " Young Lenin " spitting on a crucifix. That image could in no way have MASS APPEAL.
A little SCIENCE, physics, biology, chemistry in high school goes a long way toward correcting the more naïve religious instruction .
But even the old Catholic Baltimore Catechism is more instructive than the " God Particle " in teaching moral values.
A viable socialist government will not persecute any religious FAITH . It will just keep it a safe distance from STATE power.
If real SOCIALISM can take the terror out of every day life for working class people, that alone will at least modify Dark Age nonsense.
How not to behave toward religious people is illustrated by the obnoxious clique of New Atheists and their silly on- the- road shows.
I prefer the TROTSKYIST Christopher Hitchens to the near lunatic drunk who wrote " God Is Not Great ... how religion poisons everything " . Even Engels warned against a silly " war on God ".
Hitchens ended as an ally of George W. Bush in the Iraq War and another public intellectual " friend of Zionist Israel ".
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