All religions are based on a fabricated feeling of guilt. Guilt for being imperfect, for betraying an imaginary God or gods, for following an imaginary Satan's ways, for being an unbeliever, a heathen, for being someone who needs redemption. I think religion was the greatest invention of the ruling classes: the temporal and the clerical. They induced this guilt in the minds and hearts of the many and expected obedience and payment. The perfect barter! You give nothing, your receive everything. Jesus and the illusion of his sacrifice is a drug that keeps the sheep under the staff of the sheperds; and it is also a tool of opression. That is the opium. The passage from Marx is a call to social revolution against the shackles of religion and against the ruling classes, which were perceived by the commies as the burgeoisie and the nobility. And the fact that communism was not a viable option...religion will soon die by the same cause. I say we will be all atheists in less than 1 century.
"Religion...is the Opium of the People" - What did Marx Mean?
by cofty 82 Replies latest social current
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cofty
I think that's the biggest problem with religion, it anaethetises people and makes it more likely they will put up with injustice in this life in the hope of rewards in the next.
Spade - I'm guessing you didn't bother to read the opening post? But since JWs know everything why would you?
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Curtains
thanks for posting this cofty.
I can understand people turning to religion when they are anguished and oppressed but when a person is not in this state surely then it is time to take a break - to get out of one's comfort zone, to explore the dark side. One can always come back to religious sentiments if one needs to in order to transport oneself to a place of peace.
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slimboyfat
cofty do you follow the rest of Marx's programme or just the abolition of religion bit? To me it reads as though the abandonment of religion is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the emancipation of the oppressed masses.
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trevor
Religion has brought hope and comfort to many people. At the same time it has been used to control and blackmail the 'oppressed masses.'
Marx may well be correct in thinking that religion disguises the impoverished sate that many live in. He is suggesting that liberation from poverty and political oppression is what is required for true happiness.
The difficulty is that one of the main benefits of religion is it promises that despite death of the body, the ego will survive. This takes away the pain of contemplating our demise. This is why the bible says, "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” All religions offer a similar promise.
A political utopia coupled with prosperity cannot offer our mortal selves the hope that religion does.
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DagothUr
For some antisocial individuals, religion can be a good thing, since it keeps them cool and fearful. Others just go robbing, killing, raping right after they finish their morning prayer. Like any drug, it does not have the same effect on all people.
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PSacramento
Religion, like communisim, fills a void, a need for some.
Scratch that, organized religion does that.
Personal religion, religion that is a personal expression of hope and faith between an individual and their deity, goes FAR beyond that, FAR BEYOND.
Marx may not have understood this.
Organized religion is NOT a good thing, not because IT in of ITSELF is "bad", liek any insititution it is only as good or bad as the people that runit and the people that allow it to be run a certain way.
Organized religion is NOT a good thing because it takes the focus of Hope and faith and love from the correct individual focus to the group focus that is LEAD and MANIPULTED by an individual or group, muck like communisim.
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Murray Smith
Great thread people . . . it's added a great deal to a previously poorly understood quote on my part I have to admit. Also, some great points made which have a multitude of implications in JW world.
EG. How often have we heard words like "wait on Jehovah" when a glaring injustice is being fobbed. Rather than treat the source of the pain it's "take another puff on the pipe son . . . you'll feel better"
OR. "everything hidden will one day be revealed" . . . actually that's gotta be mainlining the stuff . . . feel the rush at the thought of that!
No doubt there's plenty more to choose from . . . Political ideology aside, Marx makes a very valid point
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dgp
Well, let's not generalize about the relief that religion is supposed to bring to the people. I think we can ask the question of WHO gets relief. Here, the members of the Ahmadis in Indonesia found everything but relief:
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cofty
Interesting comments, I am just in from work and need to get straight back out to a meeting in Newcastle - no not that kind of meeting (football). Will look forward to replying later