Marxist perspective on religion Flashcards
MARX: religion is an illusion
- he says that it originated from primitive people in response to their fear of the unknown
- religion would have disappeared but the rise of industrial capitalism led to religion being taken over by bourgeoisie and used as ruling class ideology
religion is used in the superstructure
- it is used to distort people’s perception of reality
- justifies the status quo and props up capitalism
marxism is a..
conservative force!!
- this is because it stops social change and holds society in a fixed system
“religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”
- Marx is saying that religion numbs the pain and distress since it will always back them up when they go back (addicting)
- working class uses religion the most because they are the oppressed and acts as a safety valve
MARX: religion acts as a social opiate to dull the pain produced by capitalist oppression and alienation
- this is because it is a source of solace and compensation for WC of their alienation
religion does not do anything to solve the problem
- it is a misguided attempt to make life more bearable and acts as a self delusion
- it obscures reality and offers temporary comfort
- religion can numb the pain of the oppression: it promises a paradise of eternal bliss in life after death
- ENGLES: Christianity, Islam and Judaism all offer a vision of heaven that makes life on earth more bearable
- encourage followers to anticipate something better - a fantasy escape of heavenly rewards
- religion can numb the pain of the oppression by: it can make a virtue out of the suffering produced by oppression
“it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven”
- religion promises to fix injustice and a reward for suffering therefore offers hope
(live righteously and go to heaven)
- religion can numb the pain of the oppression by: it offers hope of supernatural intervention to solve problems on earth
- followers are offered hope which makes the present more acceptable that their God will listen to their prayers
- religion promotes the idea that change comes from prayer not from individual authorship
- religion can numb the pain of the oppression by: used to justify the social order and a person’s position within it
- followers are encouraged to believe that God created and ordained the social structure which supports the status quo
- any attempts to change the social order is seen as blasphemous
religion is an instrument of oppression and maintains ruling class power
- it acts as a mechanism of social control and reinforces a system of unequal relations
religion offers illusion of hope in a hopeless status quo
- religion mystifies subordinate classes using rituals, langue, ideas and religious paraphernalia to give religion a special place in people’s minds
religion provides a philosophical acceptance of the social order
- everything happens by faith because it is planned by God
2 criticisms of Marxist ideas of religion
- marxists assume that only WC needs to numb the pain
2. other people turn to religion for other reasons other than numbing the pain
