Marxist view of religion

Question 1

Marxist reasons for religion - false class consciousness

Answer 1

false class consciousness
- religion strengthens false class consciousness
- religion is there to help dull the pain of being w/c - facing oppression and exploitation
- uses the anology of opium ( painkiller that helps to dull pain much like religion helps to stomach the reality of pain of life)
-religion masks/hides the underlying problem of exploitation - means you aren’t aware and are numb - world view is distorted

another thing that strengthen fcc is the idea of the afterlife:
- from this the w/c can use ideas of afterlife etc to deal with problem - to get into the afterlife you have to be good so they dont tend to challenge the class - call it divine compensation

Question 2

Marxist reasons for religion- divine authority, r/c ideology

Answer 2

-idea that God has chosen the authority so one challenges them - ‘ divine right of kings’
e.g monarchs children get everything at the palm of their hand - no one questions it because of it

Gods plan
-Book of Job
- all about testing faith and seeing how much God is loyal
- quote matthew 19:24

r/c ideology
work - paid work is Gods work ‘the devil makes work for idle hands’
- this is the idea that if you are working you are more likely to sin
good to be obedient - marx say its for the good of the r/c — however durkheim says its for the good of the individual

Question 3

How does religion maintain capitalism?

Answer 3

Leech
- argues that leaders of the CofE do not do anything to help reduce the inequalities of the w/c
- say this is because they come from a more priveliged background so they do not understand - means they have no motive to help
- 80% of them went to private schools

Hook
- says the catholic church is a very conservative institution meaning they have traditional views on contraception, abortion, homosexuality etc.
- this means larger families are being created which in turn means larger families create more social problems with society
- these families need money so they need to have more dependency on their job

Question 4

Neo-marxist theories
- believe there is also inequality in society and we put meanings on our life in the context of inequality

Answer 4

Maduro
-liberation theology (freedom through religion)
- catholic priests e.g oscar romero were taking traditional marxist ideas of inequality and put them with catholic beliefs
Oscar romero
- spoke out and condemned the oppression that was happening within his country, he challenged the church while using the word of God to call them out
- he did this so the wider governments could put pressure on dictatorships
- he tried to be socially liberating by wanting to make a significant change