"Religion is the opiate of the people." Discuss.?

Answer 1

Jesus Christ-not religion is the answer

Answer 2

It is an interesting quote. And I can tell you from now that it has many underlying meanings. I cant be sure which one the Marx meant when he wrote this. But most writing is like poetry I believe, people see the meaning they are inclined to see. I see the following meaning: He means it in a good way, that religion is what keeps the oppressed human in peace, and hence its like opiate. a kind of drug that lightens your head, even if it doesnt change the reality of life. I would have to agree. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing tho, is a matter of debate. And I do not think that its either good or bad. Undoubtedly tho, Marx has made an excellent observation. That for some people, it is simply necessary to live.

Answer 3

Religion in all forms has always been used to control the "little" people and elevate the leaders of the church.

There is no historical record of Jesus Christ ever existing, despite many referenced historians that were alive at the same general time there is no note of a Jewish carpenter performing miracles, being crucified and rising from the grave. You would think in the face of such an amazing occurrence someone somewhere would have written a little blurb about it but the only reference is in a book written by a Roman Emperor and the Council of Nicea used to control the people. And still 2000 years later people believe this made-up being, most likely the personification of the Sun (Sun of god), is their all-knowing all-seeing master and will come back someday to take them to some imaginary paradise.

It is simply the greatest hallucinogenic drug ever created and it has clouded the minds of a great mass of people for 2000+ years. That doesn't even include Judaism or Islam which are just as insidious.

Answer 4

Since dispute about religion is the cause of most strife in the world, I don't consider that to be much of an opiate!

Answer 5

Religion is just the beginning of life's rules & commands to make you aware of the good & bad things that you are supposed to do. With out it anything goes, which is not right to our existence. There will be killings & other heinous crime that will make the world so evil, that's why we should have spiritual guidance from
right or wrong. I doesn't matter if you have no religion or just a plain christian as long as you know that god exists.

Answer 6

"Religion is the opium of the people" (translated from the German Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes") is one of the most frequently quoted (and sometimes misquoted as "opiate of the people" or "opiate of the masses") statements of Karl Marx, from the introduction of his 1843 work Contribution to Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right which was actually subsequently released one year later in Marx's own journal Deutsch-Französischen Jahrbücher—a collaboration with Arnold Ruge. Here is what Marx said, in context:

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 d'honneur, 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. [Emphasis added]
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.
Note that the sense in which the metaphor "opium" is used can be interpreted in several ways, some of which may differ from our contemporary common sense understanding [1]. At the time when Marx wrote this text, opium was legally available in some parts of the world, although there were beginning attempts to regulate, legislate and prohibit its use, sale and production, due to the negative effects the substance had on individuals and society in general. In the mid nineteenth century, there seemed to have been four primary senses which opium could be used as a metaphor:

Opium was an important medicine. It was used as a painkiller or sedative, but also for a wide range of ailments, including combatting cholera.
Opium was a keyword for widespread social conflict, particularly the Opium Wars.
It was the source of an important 'social problem', one of the first 'public health' concerns, known as 'baby-doping' (giving your child opium to keep them quiet.)
Finally, opium was the source of fantastic visions of the 'opium eaters' (De Quincey, the Romantic Poets, etc.)
The connection between these mid-nineteenth century meanings of "opium" and Marx's text on religion is developed by McKinnon (2005).

Copied from Wikipedia.
I think, if it helps people to get through this life then, what the hell!

Answer 7

That is not what religion IS, however it has been misused as that by governments in order to extend their power over the masses of people. You need to be careful when you take a little statement out of context, to look at the bigger picture of what was meant by its use.

Answer 8

You're behind the times. In America, "Opium is the Opium of the people"

Med. prescrips for anxiety and depression. Good luck.

Answer 9

Yes it is - it keeps the faithful in line, feeling guilty about being human, and replaces rationality with superstition.

Answer 10

I think that us religious people might see Communism as the opiate of the people.

I think he recognized his enemy. Little more.

Answer 11

Religious leaders (Especially those freaked out looney American ones that think they can talk to God) and Politicians should be shot.