Tygodnik „Argumenty” jako przykład walki o kulturę laicką w PRL w latach 1957-1990

Abstract

In 1957 the Association of Atheists and Freethinkers was founded, whose task was to atheize the Polish society in a systematic way. The work of the Association was directed towards the intellectual-political elite; just like that of the Society for Lay Schools. The organization conducted broad activities on a lot of fronts of public life. The Association that changed its name to Society for the Propagation of Lay Culture in 1969 had the weekly (at first a biweekly) “Argumenty” (“Arguments”) as its press organ. The magazine was supposed to reach first of all intelligentsia, with a definite aim that was secularization, and then – atheization of the Polish society. It launched a frontal, well thought-out attack on the sphere of the religious life of the Polish citizens and on the work of the Catholic Church. It tried at all costs to ridicule and denigrate belief in God as something out of date, typical of backward and uneducated people. Also new ethics was promoted as well as a new model of family, in which there is room for divorce and abortion, if there are important reasons for this. Luckily, the weekly was not read so widely as it was expected, and after the fall of Communism in Poland in 1989 in a natural way it stopped being published, as unprofitable. However, the issue of secularization of the society has remained topical and was taken up by other magazines still present at the Polish media scene – like “Fakty i Mity” (“Facts and Myths”) or “Nie” (“No”). The struggle against the Church and religion is still carried on, even in a more perfidious and thought-out way.