Who said religion is opium

It relieves physical and emotional pain as well as lowering blood pressure. What Marx is saying is that the world is cruel and religion helps ease the pain.

He did not say religion makes the world a better place. To the contrary; historical facts clearly show religion has often been a motivating factor for cruelty. It is undeniable that religion has been responsible for cruelty, for wars even! But then, consider that all the modern mega civil conflicts, and campaigns of genocide were waged by atheistic despots- Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot.

I think that that we need the presence of religion if only as a beacon, a lighthouse, to illuminate the way forward, so we do not fall entirely into the clutches of some latter-day despots or wholly embrace the notion that science can answer all our questions, provide all our solutions. 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.

Mark Vernon: Marx saw religion as a comforter. But the real challenge is to live without the "heart in a heartless world" that it provides.

Peter Thompson: Marx's phrase makes sense only within its original context. Without the politics, the debate is sterile. This article is more than 12 years old. Was Karl Marx right to characterise faith in the way he did? Karl Marx , author of Das Kapital. Topics Religion Cif belief Philosophy comment. Marx saw religion as an understandable yet unhelpful response to societal inequality. Contemporary Marxists, however, note that marginalised groups tend to be more religiously observant.

As society has changed, so too has the Marxist response. In recent years it has become commonplace to hear Marxists assert that the widely held assumption that Marxism is opposed to religion is incorrect.

Marxism may therefore be seen as compatible with religion. So have we misunderstood Marx all along? His writings on religion are not simple or straightforward, but the present-day interpretation of Marx as sympathetic towards religion is, I believe, determined more by contemporary political circumstances than it is by a close reading of what he actually wrote.

Marx argues that religion is the product of humans, or rather, the product of the societies humans create. Religion mirrors the inequalities of the society in which it exists, so the poor become the virtuous, the wealthy will find it difficult to enter heaven, etc.

Religion is therefore a wish-fulfilment fantasy: it is how those who adhere to it would want society to look if only they had power. Of course those who promoted religion in the nineteenth century were often those who wanted to maintain this inverted vision as a fantasy, in order to prevent the notion that it might become real in this world gaining traction.

For Marx, the ultimate aim of the fight against religion is not religion itself, but rather the type of society which causes the suffering which creates the need for religion in the first place. Religion is therefore an understandable but misguided response to the suffering caused by exploitation in feudal and capitalist societies.

To engage with the metaphor directly: if you are under the influence of opium then you are detached from reality. Because you are in pain, or because your circumstances have become impossible to deal with any other way.