Religion and Democracy - Karl Marx

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Religion and Democracy - Karl Marx
The famous quote by Karl Marx ‘religion is the opiate of the people’, has been used as a critique of the society which has become heartless and religion is used to validate it to become its heart. The purpose of religion was to create illusory fantasies for the poor. The realities of the economic aspects prevent them to realize true happiness in their life, and hence, religion is employed to give heart to the poor as they await true happiness in the after life. Although this is a criticism of religion Karl Marx has sympathy as he perceived people being in distress while solace is provided for by religion just as people who are injured physically their relief comes from opiate drugs. This quote depicts that as operation fail to fix physical injury unless an underlying cause of the problem is known, similarly is religion because it is not able to fix the underlying problem of people’s suffering, but only help to forget their suffering and look forward for imaginary future when suffering will stop instead changing the circumstances.
Karl Marx believed that there were power elite that controlled most of the wealth and power in societies. The oppressors were the primary cause of people pain and suffering and were administering the drug of religion. Religion is therefore, used as an expression of more fundamental unhappiness and symptoms of a more fundamental and oppressive economic realities. Humans have to create a society in which the economic conditions cause pain and suffering would be eliminated hence, the needs for a soothing drug like religion have to end. The quote is not that negative as it is portrayed as Marx has offered a validation of religion in that, religion tries to win the hearts...