Is religion the opium of the people according to Karl Marx? Was Karl Marx right to characterize faith in the way he did? Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man – state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point dhonneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion. 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. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo. (Was he right?) Here are responses: -Marx saw religion as a comforter. But the real challenge is to live without the heart in a heartless world that it provides. –Mark Venon - Marxs phrase makes sense only within its original context. Without the politics, the debate is sterile. –Peter Thompson -Marx saw religion as a barrier to understanding – but Judaism, at its best, is a religion which encourages people to think. Dan Rickman In this 21st century, judging by the happening in the society today, how do you understand the term religion?
Posted on: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 15:11:10 +0000
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