KARL MARX'S VIEW ON RELIGION AND HOW IT IS MISINTERPRETED

In this article we will discuss what Marx's stance and view on religion was and how some one his most popular quotes on religion have been heavily misinterpreted over time.

WHAT WAS MARX'S VIEW ON RELIGION? 

Marx makes a structural-functionalist argument about religion or more specifically organized religion. Now you will thought of what actually the structural theory is?

Structuration Theory is a concept in sociology that offers perspectives on human behavior based on a synthesis of structure(authoritative institutions) and agency(individual expression or will).

Marx believed that religion had certain practical functions in society that were similar to the function of opium in a sick or injured person, it reduced people's immediate suffering and provided them with pleasant illusions which gave them the strength to carry on.

Marx also saw religion as harmful to revolutionary potential in some cases as it can prevent people from seeing the class structure and oppression around them, thus religion can prevent revolution. Marx pointed out that it may be loose the class consciousness of the people. The reason why he saw religion as harmful in some cases is because he viewed religion as an ideological apparatus which means in Marxist terms, a means of which the bourgeoise spread ideas, norms and values in society that maintain the status quote or tell the proletariat that their suffering or position in society is acceptable.

The reason why Marx viewed religion this way is because during the feudal era in Europe, many who were apart of the bourgeoise or kings at the time used religion as a way to establish their authority over the proletariat through use of the divine right of kings(the idea that a king or queen were in power by direct mandate by god).

This could subvert revolutionary potential because if large portions of the proletariat believed in a higher power or god they would be afraid to move against said king or queen in fear of angering that higher power that presumably ordained and established their rulers place in society.

Another way religion can be viewed as ideological apparatus is the fact that it can be used to further pacify the proletariat through promoting suffering as apart of god's plan or is favored by god and that those who suffer may have an easier way of getting into a certain afterlife because they are poor.

Now what this all does is it creates a state of being known as False Consciousness which is a mental state of being in which the workers or proletariat don't realize their exploitation by the bourgeoise or the ways in which they are being exploited in society by the bourgeoise.

The final way in which religion is ideological apparatus is it disguises oppression and exploitation under capitalism as it promises rewards or happiness in the afterlife thus diverting people away from wanting to change the current system and the current way of life and making them believe or not worry about the alienation felt when working in a capitalist society.

Many have wrongly interpreted Marx's views on religion as being anti religious or atheist in the modern or conventional sense of the term. Marx never was anti-religious nor did he critique the substance of religion i.e. "is there a higher power?", but rather he critiqued religion on the basis that it was used as a tool by the bourgeoise to sometimes subvert the working classes power and organizing.

The often quoted 'opium of the masses' is not an atheistic rallying point, it was originally written in 1843 in the introduction to Marx's book criticizing the philosophy of Hegel.

The full quote by Marx says: "Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."

This quote is not a denial of a higher power or saying that religion is a fantasy or illusion in the sense that faith in itself is bad but rather what Marx means by that quote is religion is often times used as an escape similar to how opium can give momentary feelings of relief, reduced anxiety, pain relief but also symptoms of impaired coordination and alertness.

The reason religion is similar in that sense is that it can provide an escape from the alienation and oppression felt under capitalism whilst also being used as a tool by the bourgeoise to distract or divert focus from the mechanisms under capitalism that oppress the working class or like opium's symptoms of impaired coordination and alertness.