Karl Marx - Critique of Religious Belief?

Question

I'm just wondering if anybody read this selection. If you have, do you with agree with his position and his views on religion? I'm just curious.

Answer 1

Works of Karl Marx 1843

Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
Karl Marx in Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, February, 1844
For Germany, the criticism of religion has been essentially completed, and the criticism of religion is the prerequisite of all criticism.

The profane existence of error is compromised as soon as its heavenly oratio pro aris et focis [“speech for the altars and hearths”] has been refuted. Man, who has found only the reflection of himself in the fantastic reality of heaven, where he sought a superman, will no longer feel disposed to find the mere appearance of himself, the non-man [Unmensch], where he seeks and must seek his true reality.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm

Atheism, as the denial of this unreality, has no longer any meaning, for atheism is a negation of God, and postulates the existence of man through this negation; but socialism as socialism no longer stands in any need of such a mediation. It proceeds from the theoretically and practically sensuous consciousness of man and of nature as the essence. Socialism is man’s positive self-consciousness, no longer mediated through the abolition of religion, just as real life is man’s positive reality, no longer mediated through the abolition of private property, through communism.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/comm.htm

Yes, I agree, but one must be careful to point out that 'abolition' or the end of it for Marx does not necessarily mean the complete negation of anything. I believe for Marx the universalization for man as scientist is the end of science, which of course may have no final end for it. At least that is the hope. The real end is for each individual that each become real for their self, a being as self property for self. It doesn't seem terribly realistic.

Answer 2

I agree with this wholeheartedly:
"“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people.
The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusions about its condition is the demand"

Answer 3

Marx must be looked at in historical context. What society and industry looked like during his time. I would agree with him then, but not now.