主题：【原创】Religious Communism (上） -- 唵啊吽

（Home work of ESL in 1989)

（这是20年前的感受，对文革经历还还记忆犹新）

In China, Communist considers religion a superstition which poisons people like an opium of spirit; however, Communism itself functions religiously in many aspects.

A few days after I arrived Canada, an old lady asked me:

"What is your religion?"

"I don't believe in any religion."

"How can you live without religion?" her eyes grew wide with surprise and suspicion.

I was not less shocked than she was when I was looking at her astonished face. Had I lived in China where there were hardly any functional churches or temples? Could that be a human society without religion? What was a religion really?

Since there are many churches in Montreal, I went to a Christian. I joined the Sunday worship, the Bible study on Friday evening, and even the basic training -- a systematic Bible course for whomever was eager to become a Christian. The only religious decoration in the church is a cross hanging on the rostrum. There was scarcely any superstitious ritual in the church except the frequent praying.

Christians pray to God to give thanks and to get guidance and blessing. While the effect varies from person to person, to

pray is at least a psychological method of enhancing faith: praying keeps them aware of their relation with God and reminds them to behave as Christians.

I wondered why the Communist Party of China(CPC) didn't use this effective method when they asked people to "Bear in mind constantly the class struggle," "Bear in mind constantly the lofty Party," and "Bear in mind constantly the proletarian dictatorship." Then I remembered they did have similar rituals during the Great Cultural Revolution, when revolutionary people had to ask Chairman Mao' instructions in the morning, to report to him at night, to adore him before meal and every event, and all had to be done standing before Mao's portrait. Now all these rituals have become history, but devoted members of the CPC should always remember their relationship with Communism and

behave as Communist fighters, though they lack concrete psychological methods like praying to assure this.

The church was a happy and harmonious community. The Christians were so friendly that they always intended to offer

help. They could all be Lei Feng, the Communist Saint in China, if they devoted their lives to Communism instead of God.

Despite the pleasing church life, I had difficulty in believing in Christ not because the Bible was too exotic but because of something familiar that made me sceptical. Since I had never participated in any religious activities before, the strange familiarity kept puzzling me until I compared the Holy Spirit to Communism, Satan to capitalism, and the belief and

practice of Christianity to that of Communism. It is not the contents but the structure and patten of the two belief systems

that are similar.

For the Communist, Communism is the source of all the goodness and true in the world and Communist Party is the saviour of human being; for the Christian, God is goodness and true itself and Christ is the Saviour.

If there is a scientific discovery or other achievements in China, it will inevitably be used as a testimony to how powerful

Mao's thought is, how correct CPC's leadership is and how great the People are. Here the People is a holy word in CPC's dictionary that stands for the source of life and history. I can neither deny the achievements that occurred in the Communist country, nor can I deny that people get more food in North America than in Asia, when a Christian says that this is because there are more Christians praying to God in North America.

On the other side, CPC attributes all evils to capitalism as Christians condemn all evils to Satan. If there is a dispute

inside CPC, the right side must be thought as Marxism, and the wrong side must be thought as capitalism; even though most the individual involved are peasants who do not understand Marx' economics at all, and capitalism has never got chance to develop in China. If a new trend in China does not fit into the revolutionary tradition, it will certainly be labelled bourgeois. Wearing jeans was once criticised as a bourgeois living manner, but I find, ironically, the most in jeans are proletarian in the west society.

Mathematically, we can give a void set any properties without risking a logical conflict; much the same way, the Holy

and the Evil, both Communist's and Christian's, lie so behind the real world that they can explain any thing regardless peoples' ordinary experience.

If the Communism in China is a religion, what is the institute that functions as church? Well, China's society comprises multifunctional communities called working units such as factories, schools, armies, stores or farms. The community is

Communist magic: it is an enterprise when producing; it is a government when planning the housing, children's education,

health and welfare for its employees; it is a church when providing spiritual guidance that helps individual spiritually

grow into Communist. The role of the missionary belongs to political tutors, political commissar or the secretary of the

party branch.

Every week, the working unit puts half day for political study, as youth Christians have an evening for Bible study. These

two studies are functionally the same in their belief systems. They are studies for the believer, propaganda for the secular, education or brain wash for the naive. It enhances the faith of the believers by communicating with the Holy Spirit (or heightening Communism awareness), and it teaches the unbelievers how to approach the holy.

This kind of study begins by reading a verse of Bible, or Mao's Quotation, or an editorial of People's Daily, or a document of CPC. Since the verse is a light from the Holy Spirit, the attendants are asked let it guide their daily life. There are many citations from other verses of the Bible or Marxism's classical works to prove the true of the verse. The proof is very convincing for the believer who has faith on the ures, but the secular consider it an absurd logic to prove each other among the meaningless ures. There are then some testimony about the power of the Holy Spirit, examples of ancient Saints or Red Army Martyrs, and believers' recent experience. They all sound much the same. Having the Holy Spirit or remembering the Party and the People, you body will be filled with almighty power that can accomplish great jobs. Keeping steadily the Holy Spirit, your spirit or thought will be purified every day as well your detailed and subtle behaviours will be corrected. Guiding by the Holy Spirit, you can succeed all your life. If the light of Holy Spirit from the studied verse discloses the sins or evils of every day life, the study will be finished by repents or self-criticises.

• 麻烦你把论点说清，逻辑摆明。
• 你吃惊，我也吃惊，但是，这是难以否认的自然结论
• 可能不同的人对宗教定义不同吧
• 对你来说或许是错误的，