Marxist view on religion Flashcards
How does religion legitimise inequality?
Religion suggests that the suffering of the poor is god given and inevitable. This misleads the poor into thinking that this will be rewarded in the afterlife.
How does religion provide extistential security?
Religion can provide hope for a supernatural intervention to solve their suffering, this prevents a revolution as it makes it seem that human intervention pointless
What does Marx say about religion?
Religion is the ‘opium of the masses’ where it dulls the oppression the working class face
EVAL - what do marxists ignore?
The positive functions of religion that have been outlined by functionalists
EVAL - what does Abercrombie, Hill and Turner say?
Religion doesn’t necessarily function as an ideology that is used to control the population e.g pre industrial times
