Religion as the Opium of the Masses

Religion as the opium of the masses. Like the Hebrew prophets of old, Marx knew that to speak of social justice, we must become socially self-critical, and that essence becoming critical of the ruling powers whether they may be kings or priests or investment bankers. Power and privilege in society always disguise their own arbitrariness behind the facade of middling play, which may be called providence or karma or standardized test scores.Whatever basis is used to claim an objective and unbiased perspective such claims involve critical analysis and challenge. About 90% of the world belongs to some sort of religious belief. Marx understood that purpose and that is why he made the statement, religion is the opium of the masses which means that religion is what keeps the masses motivated, like a medicine that blinds them to all the hardships of life.Religion has blinded the slew to adore their sufferings hoping for something like a purgatory or a heaven that they would enjoy la ter on their toiling on earth. It has come to control the people with its guiding principles although most of its guiding principles arent adhered to by its top leaders for example on the news there are various stories of pastors molesting children or their congregations, popes, monks and nuns breaking their vows yet their followers are faithful due to the promise of a peaceful after life.For Marx, all ideas are relative to the social location and interests of their production. And like the prophets before him, the most revealing perspective is not from the top down or from the condense outward, only if the view of the widow and the orphan the point of view of the exploited and the marginalized. Suffering tush see through and unveil official explanation it can cry out and protest against the arrogance of power.This brings us back to how Marx viewed religion as the opium of the masses. That is we tend to think Marx had a monolithically negative view of religion but that is not th e case immediately preceding this language the opium the following is found Religion is at one and at the same time the appearance of real suffering and a protest. Religion is the sign of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions.Here Marx recognizes in religion an restless moral agency especially for the deprived and the despised. Religion is not simply the ideological expression of the powerful, legitimacy the social hierarchy as in the case, for example, of vocalizing hymns with the hidden message that theres a King in Heaven so there shall and should be kings on earth. No, for Marx in the hands and voices of the short(p) and exploited, religion is protest.It is a crying out against real suffering not illusory sufferings such as fear of punishment from the gods or suffering caused by some impurity inherited from a previous incarnation. For Marx, the essence of religion is its voicing of suffering its crying out against the real tors of exploitation and degradation. The essence of macrocosm human is a passionate suffering, a struggle to take back into our hands a world we have made but which is then taken away from us.Religion has found a way in which it governs our or lives or society in general. It is normal for the major religious group in a society to automatically control the ruling party. The major religious group affects the behavior of the people in power and somewhat controls their decisions due to their effect on the people. A major religious group can influence the choosing of who stays in power or who comes into power just by saying paragon has chosen a particular person to lead us and make our country or state stronger.The people have no choice but to follow the doctrine thats why Marx made the statement, religion is the opium of the masses was made. Religion has somewhat found a way to control every look of the lives of individuals in the society. It has become the new trend of the day eve ryone belongs to a religion because of the returns that they intend to receive. Religion has turned into the medicine for all types of sorrows this in turn controls the people who come to it for help.