“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, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people.”
What the hell is he saying?? Please explain so a dumb person like me can understand!! Thanks
2007-11-16 07:10:51 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
You're not dumb, your question shows that you are actually smart and willing to learn.
Religion is the result of the harsh realities of life. People made up and turned to religion because they were tired of disasters, starvation and plagues, humans created religion to give meaning and hope to life.
Unfortunately that creation took on a life of its own, and people now use it to ignore reality and not think for themselves. People will rely on tradition and faith based teaching rather than learning what really causes things to happen.
In essence he is saying that religion is like a pain medication for people with painful disease, but the medication, doesn't cure the disease, it just dulls the pain and causes people to become addicted, so they will never learn of a cure.
That is one point he was exactly right on, although he was very wrong about the human spirit.
2007-11-16 07:13:19 · answer #1 · answered by ɹɐǝɟsuɐs Blessed Cheese Maker 7 · 8⤊ 0⤋
It means that evil capitalism makes a few people mega-rich and leaves the majority poor (half the world lives on less then 2 dollars a day)
Instead of working to make the world a more fair place so that none of the 18 million people who die each year cos of poverty actually do die, religion just keeps the problem going by making it acceptable for poor people to remain poor.
When he said religion is the opium of the people, he meant that it keeps them poor and stops them from making the world better.
To the guy above
Just because communism failed before, doesnt mean it will always fail. If we all thought like that, there wouldnt be aeroplanes and cars and space exploration etc etc etc
Communism failed in the past because it was violently imposed on societies which hadn't experienced capitalism.
Marx actually said that capitalism would eventually eat itself, and after that communism would rise from its ashes.
Look at the mess capitalism has made of the world - global warming, pollution everywhere, destruction of rainforests, Yangtze river dolphin extinct, etc etc etc
It can't carry on forever.
2007-11-16 15:18:09 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Religious suffering is the suffering invoked by God to people because they sin, I think. What Marx is saying is that the suffering that "God" causes is the "real suffering" in the above quote. People know they can't fight or combat God when they find themselves in suffering and just give in. Religion masks that the people are in real problems and suffering and that religion is just a diversion. A drug/diversion/opium for the masses/people.
2007-11-16 15:19:50 · answer #3 · answered by Manuel B 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well Marxs doesnt belive that religion is righteous becasue it in a sense enslaves people in a flase belief by taking advantage of their suffering. He sees it as a sort of "drug" or "distraction" from the true suffering of the lower class working class proletariat. That is why a Marxist or Communist system doesn't promote religion, but tries to promote (always failing) a just world for people of all classes and status. Any socialist system tries to even the distribution of wealth, aka not take advantage of the suffering class.
2007-11-16 15:17:43 · answer #4 · answered by NietzChe 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I like the other Marx better, he is much more insightful.
I read in the newspapers they are going to have 30 minutes of intellectual stuff on television every Monday from 7.30 to 8.00 to educate America. They couldn't educate America if they started at 6:30.
-Groucho Marx
I won't belong to any organization that would have me as a member.
-Groucho Marx
2007-11-16 15:19:41 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Religion is like a drug for the dumb masses that gets them through the day. If you can't get along in life without a crutch you can be controled, which is what Marx was all about.
2007-11-16 15:17:02 · answer #6 · answered by Dav Kenso 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
basically religion is the means of escape from hard factual reality for the majority of people, much the same as a drug user uses opium for the same effect- he is trying to convey his own feelings towards religion as a bona fide athiest- people are living in a dream world if they believe what is portrayed as fact by religion; and for what its worth i agree wholeheartedly
2007-11-16 15:22:05 · answer #7 · answered by Glenn F 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Oppressors use religion to continue oppressing their victims. They say that suffering is good for the soul.
2007-11-16 15:15:08 · answer #8 · answered by Averell A 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Being involved with and believing religion keeps people from facing the fact that corporations and politicians are using and abusing them.
2007-11-16 15:14:33 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
What does it mean to you?
Do you believe God is real?
Or do you believe that religion is nothing but a means to calm the ignorant masses?
2007-11-16 15:19:36 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋