e.

No man can be consistently both a Socialist and a Christian. It must be
either the socialist or the religious principle that is supreme, for the
attempt to couple them equally betrays charlatanism or lack of thought.
There is, therefore, no need for a specifically anti-religious test.

So surely does the acceptance of Socialism lead to the exclusion of the
supernatural, that the Socialist has little need for such terms as
Atheist, Free-thinker, or even Materialist; for the word Socialist,
rightly understood, implies one who, on all such questions, takes his
stand on positive science, explaining all things by purely natural
causation, Socialism being not merely a politico-economic creed, but
also an integral part of a consistent world philosophy.

So long as the anarchy of modern competitive society exists, the
accompanying obscurity and confusion in social life will continue to
shelter superstition. This point is illustrated in the following
reference by Marx to the United States:

When we see in the very country of complete political emancipation
not only that religion exists, but retains its vigour, there is no
need, I hope, for other proofs in order to show that the existence
of religion is not incompatible with the full political maturity of
the State. But if religion exists it is because of a defective
social organization, of which it is necessary to seek the cause in
the very essence of the State.

Class domination is the essence of the modern State. It is based on
competitive anarchy and parasitism--the evidences of a defective social
organization. It still leaves room for religion, because it maintains
ignorance and confusion by its structure and contradictions, and because
religion is fostered as a handmaiden of class rule.

Nevertheless, the growth of the social forces of production within
modern society, and the better knowledge the workers obtain of their
true relations to each other and to Nature, loosen the chains of ghost
worship and mysticism from their limbs and lessen the power of religion
as a political weapon in the hands of the ruling class, while they form,
at the same time, the material and intellectual preparation for an
intelligently organized society. The matter has been put in a nutshell
by Marx in the chapter on "Commodities" in "Capital," volume I.

The religious reflex of the real world can, in any case, only then
finally vanish, when