Marxist Theories of Religion

Marxists see all socities as divided into two classes, one which exploits the labour of the other. There is always the potential for class conflict, and Marx predicted that the working class would ultimately become conscious of their exploitation and untie to otherthrow capitalism. 

This would bring a classless society in which there would no longer be exploitation.

Marxism sees religion as a feature only of class-divided society and so if there were to be a classless society then there would be no need for religion.

Ideology - a beliefs system that distorts people's perception of reality in ways that serve the interests of the ruling class.

The class that controls economic production also controls the production and distribution of ideas in society, through institutions such as the church, the education system and the media.

Religion operates as an ideological weapon used by the ruling class to legitimate the suffering of the poor as something inevitable and god-given.

Religion misleads the poor into believing that their suffering is virtuous as that they will be favoured in the afterlife.

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven - this creates a false consciousness - a distorted view of reality that prevents the poor from acting to chnage their situation. 

Lenin describes religion as 'spiritual gin' - an intoxican doled out to the masses by the ruling class to confuse them and keep them in their place. 

The ruling class use religion cynically to manipulate the masses and keep them from attempting to otherthrow the ruling class by creating a 'mystic fog' that obsures reality.

Religion also legitimates the power and priviledge of the dominant class by making their position appear to be divinely ordained. 

The 16th century idea of the Divine Right of Kings was the belief that the king is God's representative on earth and is owed total obedience. 

Disobedience is not only illegal but a sinful challenge to God's authority. 

Another example of religion justifying social inequality is the Hindu caste system. Caste is a system of social stratification base on ascribed status. You are born into the same caste as your parents and marriage between castes is forbidden. 

Preists ->  Warrior caste -> Merchant caste -> Servants and Labourers ->  (untouchables who aren't considered to have a caste at all).

The doctrine of karma teaches that if you behave well in this world by accepting and observing the rules of caste, after death you will be reincarnated into a higher caste. These rules inclue stricts norms about purity and impurity, governing what food may be eaten and what social contact allowed between members of diferent castes. Higher castes must maintain higher levels of purity. (touching someone from a lower caste may be seen as pollutuion and must be followed by elaborate cleansing rituals)

The doctrines of reincarnation and karma serve to maintain inequality by assuring those at the bottom of the caste system that their obedience will be rewarded by reincarnation into a higher caste. (and in the reverse for disobedience)

Higher castes percieve their privileged postitions as a reward for their virtue in a previous life. 

Marx also sees religion as the product of alienation.

Alienation - becoming separated from or losing control over something that one has produced or created.

It exists in all class societies but is more extreme under capitalism. 

Workers are alienated because they do not own what they produce and have no control over the production process, and thus no freedom to express their true nature as creative beings. 

It reaches a peak with the detailed division of labour in the capitalist factory, where the worker endlessly repeats the same minute task, devoid of all meaning or skill. In these dehumanising conditions the exploited turn to religion as a form of consolation. As Marx says:

'is the opium of the people. It is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of the heartless world, the soul of the soulless conditions, the spirit of the spiritless situation.'

Relgion acts as an opiate to dull the pain of exploitation.

Opium masks pain rather than treating its cause, so religion masks the underlying problem of the exploitation that creates the need for it. 

Religion is a distorted view of the world so it can offer no solution to earthly misery.

Instead, its promise of the afterlife creates an illusory hapiness that distracts attention from the true source of suffering, capitalism. 

Marx shows how religion may be a tool of oppression that masks exploitation and creates false consciousness. However, he ignores positive functions of religion, such as psychological adjustment to misfourtune. Neo-Marxists see certain forms of religion as assiting not hindering the development of class consciousness.

Some Marxists, such as Althusser, reject the concept of alienantion as unscietinfic and based on a romantic idea that human beings have a 'true self'. This would make the concept an inadequate basis for a thoery of religion.

Religion does not necessarily function effectively as an ideology to control the population. For example, Abercrombie, Hill and Turner argue that in pre-capitalist society, while Christianity was a major element of ruling-class ideology, it had only limited impact on the peasantry.