How do we account for religion - its origin, its development, and even its persistence in modern society? This is a question, which has occupied many people in a variety of fields for quite a long time. At one point, the answers were framed in purely theological and religious terms, assuming the truth of Christian revelations and proceeding from there.

But through the 18th and 19th centuries, a more "naturalistic" approach developed. One person who attempted to examine religion from an objective, scientific perspective was Karl Marx. Marx's analysis and critique of religion is perhaps one of the most famous and most quoted by theist and atheist alike.

The most famous quote from the work of Karl Marx (and one of the most controversial statements in all of philosophy) is his frank assertion that religion "is the opium of the people" (141)*. This pithy comment is indeed a good summation up Marx’s straightforward appraisal of religion, which he said "eased pain even as it created fantasies" for those masses of oppressed workers suffering at the hands of a p

Some have found the "keys to paradise" in drugs, others in religion. Marx insisted that these are the same, both opening a door leading only to illusion and false hope. He imagined that in socio-economic analysis he had found the key to understanding everything. But Marx didn’t think there even was a key to paradise, and insisted instead that through revolution, the masses would have to kick the gates open, and behind them find heaven on earth–communism.

Thus his conclusion that "religion’s role in history has been to offer a divine justification for the status quo" (142)*.

protecting the privilege of those in control, and therefore it "should not only be dismissed, but dismissed with scorn" (139)*.

system; motivating people to remake political, social, and economic institutions in keeping with an imperative to transform the world more closely to the ideal.”(P.134)^ Religion was now responsible for uniting and enlarging a community who could live together in peace with the same moral and ethical code of conduct. Weber believed that the Protestant ethic broke the hold of tradition while it encouraged men to apply themselves rationally to their work

Marx was a reductionism who thought that religion (and nearly all other phenomena) could only be properly understood as "a symptom of something more real and substantial that lies underneath it," which he called the "base" (145)*. He

Marx imagined primeval communist societies in which all resources were owned jointly by the members of the community, a social organisation to which he longed for a putative return. People would have duties and roles, but their work would be an extension of their personality and would be inherently fulfilling to them, while at the same time contributing to the good of the entire community. In such a system, goods achieved or manufactured by the labour of individuals would be shared throughout the group, each person always attaining what was needed to live (food, clothing, shelter) and to be productive (raw materials), but no more.

The social principles of Christianity preach the necessity of a ruling and an oppressed class, [...] declare all vile acts of the oppressors against the oppressed to be either the just punishment of original sin and other sins or trials that the Lord in his infinite wisdom imposes on those redeemed. [...] preach cowardice, self-contempt, abasement, submission, dejection. (142-3)*

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