- Marx saw religion to do TWO main things.
OPIUM OF THE PEOPLE (cushioning the pain of oppression and explotation in unequal socieities) Religion acts like a hallucinatory, pain-relieving drug creating illusions among the oppressed - helped dominant keep power. It eases the pain produced by poverty, explotation and oppression. It gave meaning to lives. Overcome effects of alienation (lack of control, fulfilment and satisfaction).
- Legitimized and maintained the power of the ruling class
RELIGION EASES PAIN IN 3 WAYS:
- 1. Promises an eventual escape from suffereing - ecstatic future after death. Virtue of suffering and poverty. God's will, a test of faith, rewarded in afterlife. They may accept or welcome their sitch and not try to improve it. E.g. the Bible states 'the meek shall inherit the earth.
- 2. Religion provides explanation and justification for inequality. Hindu religion provides a religious ustification for the inequalities of the Indian Caste system, rules about behave, wear and eat, who marry. People obey this - reincarnation, if they dont obey there cast will be reborn lower level. People still hold strict belief (1,000 years).
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