I don't really see much criticism of atheism in the passage provided, nor in the source document, but indeed, militant atheism, especially as suggested by the new atheists is just as troublesome as religion can be.
he says he rejects the label & wants to treat with the essence & the social context of philosophy itself
In this "Contribution to the Critique of the Philosophy of Right" Marx is saying in 1843:
"Thus, the criticism of Heaven turns into the criticism of Earth, the criticism of religion into the criticism of law, and the criticism of theology into the criticism of politics"
"The criticism of religion ends with the teaching that man is the highest essence for man – hence, with the categoric imperative to overthrow all relations in which man is a debased, enslaved, abandoned, despicable essence, relations which cannot be better described than by the cry of a Frenchman when it was planned to introduce a tax on dogs: Poor dogs! They want to treat you as human beings! "
Criticizing religion isn't ultimately the target of humanity's ire, but a way to bring us toward criticizing the institutions & conventions that do hold humanity back in a visceral way
In 1844, Marx writes about the critique of religion as contributing to the formulation of socialism, but that “Atheism, as a negation of God, has no longer any meaning, and postulates the existence of man through this negation; but socialism as socialism no longer stands in any need of such a mediation”
This is important because it’s still about the material bearing that any of these philosophical renderings has on social life, and on the individual
“Religious suffering is at one and the same time the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions”
Dogmatic atheism for Marx in this sense is to attack humanity’s means to abstractly or at the most socially alleviate its own suffering
Further, Marx writes: “everyone should be able to relieve religious and bodily nature without the police sticking their noses in"
In Capital Marx writes this: “This antagonistic stage cannot be avoided, any more than it is possible for man to avoid the stage in which his spiritual energies are given a religious definition as powers independent of himself. What we are confronted by here is the alienation [Entfremdung] of man from his own labour”
So while Marx was under the influence of the Enlightenment & specifically of Feuerbach’s critique of theology (Feuerbach himself also rejected puerile “atheism” as such), Marx is approaching these things from a historical standpoint to reveal the very human essence at the heart of such striving
the scathing words are mostly against atheism as such
I don't really see much criticism of atheism in the passage provided, nor in the source document, but indeed, militant atheism, especially as suggested by the new atheists is just as troublesome as religion can be.
Can't win, you get fucked coming and going.
he says he rejects the label & wants to treat with the essence & the social context of philosophy itself
In this "Contribution to the Critique of the Philosophy of Right" Marx is saying in 1843:
"Thus, the criticism of Heaven turns into the criticism of Earth, the criticism of religion into the criticism of law, and the criticism of theology into the criticism of politics"
"The criticism of religion ends with the teaching that man is the highest essence for man – hence, with the categoric imperative to overthrow all relations in which man is a debased, enslaved, abandoned, despicable essence, relations which cannot be better described than by the cry of a Frenchman when it was planned to introduce a tax on dogs: Poor dogs! They want to treat you as human beings! "
Criticizing religion isn't ultimately the target of humanity's ire, but a way to bring us toward criticizing the institutions & conventions that do hold humanity back in a visceral way
In 1844, Marx writes about the critique of religion as contributing to the formulation of socialism, but that “Atheism, as a negation of God, has no longer any meaning, and postulates the existence of man through this negation; but socialism as socialism no longer stands in any need of such a mediation”
This is important because it’s still about the material bearing that any of these philosophical renderings has on social life, and on the individual
“Religious suffering is at one and the same time the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions”
Dogmatic atheism for Marx in this sense is to attack humanity’s means to abstractly or at the most socially alleviate its own suffering
Further, Marx writes: “everyone should be able to relieve religious and bodily nature without the police sticking their noses in"
In Capital Marx writes this: “This antagonistic stage cannot be avoided, any more than it is possible for man to avoid the stage in which his spiritual energies are given a religious definition as powers independent of himself. What we are confronted by here is the alienation [Entfremdung] of man from his own labour”
So while Marx was under the influence of the Enlightenment & specifically of Feuerbach’s critique of theology (Feuerbach himself also rejected puerile “atheism” as such), Marx is approaching these things from a historical standpoint to reveal the very human essence at the heart of such striving