Man makes happiness. Man makes sadness. Man makes religion. Over the centuries or even back at the primitive era, the religion has always played an important part in human’s life. Humans celebrate happiness and mourn sadness through religion.
Karl Marx‘s idea that humans with immaturity depend on religion is true, but he does not give any solution to “pluck the living flower.” (1)
People depend on religion because they find difficulty living their lives by themselves. Marx’s point that religion is the “self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again” (1) might seem to restrict the religion into certain area. However, it is actually illustrating the human nature very well. Not many humans or no one fully understands themselves. Humans are always around the questions of the universe, existence and life and never get accurate answers from anyone but the religion. Therefore, it is correct to say that the religion one of the kinds of opiate of the people.
Even though Marx plucks the imaginary flowers, the religion, on the chain, he does not teach humans the way to pluck the living flower. He only helps humans realize the disillusion role of religion, but leave humans in the place where they don’t know where to go. Thus, it leads them into the religion again with many inquiries left.
Source: Marx, Karl. "Introuction to a Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right." (1844)
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1 comment:
I think this is a very valid point. While Marx is very good at pointing out the negatives of religion he fails to offer an alternative. It is unrealistic to expect people to live without some sort of hope, especially while history proves that religion has played a pivotal role in the development of cultures. While Marx may not have been aware of this, he must have at least observed the ways in which religion positively influenced certain societies or civilizations.
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