Theories of religion: Marxism

Question 1

Marxists beliefs in society

Answer 1

they see religion as a feature of only class divided society, as it is used by the bourgeoisie or ruling class to legitimate and exploit the suffering of the proletariat.

Question 2

Marx

Answer 2

materialistic perspective, religion serves to mystify the real relations between men and inanimate objects. Through religion, humans project personal characteristics onto nature: and come to belief that the way to manipulate nature is to appeal to these gods though ritual or sacrifice.

Question 3

1) Religion is the ‘opium of the people’

Answer 3

‘religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. it is the opium of the people’.

Question 4

2) Religion is the ‘opium of the people’

Answer 4

according to Marx, one of the main ‘functions’ of religion is to prevent people making demands for social change by dulling pain of oppression.

Question 5

the promise of an afterlife gives people something to look forward to.

Answer 5

it is easier to put up with misery now if you believe you have a life of ‘internal bliss’ to look forward to after death.

Question 6

religion makes a virtue out of suffering

Answer 6

making it appear as if the poor are more ‘Godly’ than the rich. One of the best illustrations of this is the Bible: ‘it is easier for the camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for the rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.’

Question 7

religion can offer hope of supernatural intervention o solve problems on earth

Answer 7

this makes it pointless for humans to try to do anything significant to help improve their current conditions

Question 8

religion can justify the social order and people’s positions within that order, as in the line in the victorian hymn ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’

Answer 8

• the rich in his castle
• the poor at his gate
• god made them high and lowly
• and ordered their estate

such lines make social inequalities seem as if they are ‘God’s will’ an thus unchangeable

Question 9

Marxists prospective

Answer 9

religion does not only ameliorate the suffering of life, it also effectively creates false consciousness.

Question 10

religion and social control

Answer 10

according to Marx and Engles, the parson has ever gone hand in hand with the landlord. this was especially true in feudal England when the landed classes’ decisions were frequently legitimated by religious decree

Question 11

Marx and Engles

Answer 11

they saw it as the bourgeois’s and the church supported one another, the church legitimated social inequality, thus maintaining the established social order.

Question 12

the non-necessity of religion under communism

Answer 12

religion is only necessary under exploitative systems where the majority of men do not control the conditions under which they labour,

Question 13

under systems where men work for someone else rather than for themselves

Answer 13

in such systems, religious doctrine which teach that ‘you are insignificant in the eyes of gods/the supernatural make sense, and serve a useful function for those who are in control of and who benefit from said exploitation.

Question 14

communism

Answer 14

where man control the conditions of his labour, he is essentially ‘for himself’, and thus will have no need of religion. Under communism, where reality is ‘fair’ religion will not be required, and so will simply wither away.

Question 15

evidence supporting Marx

Answer 15

‘New Christian Right’, who according top Bruce (1988), support ‘a more aggressive anti-communist foreign policy, more military spending, less welfare spending and fewer restraints on enterprise’. NCR have supported right wing (Neo) liberal candidates.

Question 16

1) criticisms of Marx

Answer 16

• it is clear that religion does not always prevent social change by creating false consciousness. there are plenty of examples of where oppressed groups have used religion to attempt to bring social change.

Question 17

2) criticisms of Marx

Answer 17

• religion still exists where there is (arguably) no oppression: the USSR communist state placed limits on the practice of religion, including banning religious instruction to children, however, religious belief remained stronger in the 20th century in Russia and Eastern Europe than it did in the capitalist west.

Question 18

3) criticisms of Marx

Answer 18

• just because religion can be used as a tool of manipulation and oppression, this does not explain its existence; religion seems to be more or less universal in all societies, so it is likely that it fulfills other individual and social needs, possibly in a more positive way suggested by functionalist.

Question 19

Lenin

Answer 19

describes religion as ‘spiritual gin’ = an intoxication doled out to the masses/proletariats by the ruling class in order to confuse and dull their senses as the ways I which they are being exploited.

Question 20

1) evaluation of Marxists

Answer 20

• Marx ignores the positive functions religion can have, such as the psychological benefits it may bring to believers etc.

Question 21

2) evaluation of Marxists

Answer 21

religion does not necessarily function effectively as an ideology to control the population.