Yukiko Nagata Ms.Snyder
Religions of Asia: Karl Marx on Religion 9/18/2007
Marx’s point of view toward religion is very negative and critical. He believes that when men are given a divine figure to look up to, they loose touch with reality. In other words, religions make people accept a bad life situation instead of trying to change it. However, it is not correct to call religion the “opiate of the people” because people find religions personal, significant and reliable in order to overcome many difficulties that they face during their lives.
Marx said that religions take away from who you really are and teach humans to deal with the situation instead of attempting to change it. This is true in some situations in the history. For instance, when people from Europe came to and colonized America needed slaves, they used Christianity as a tool and an excuse. They said that coming to America to work and starting to believe in Christianity would help them, the African Americans, overcome their struggles and bring better futures. However, this is not true in the real life. When encountering a challenging situation, people often times reflect back on their own beliefs based on their religions and try their best to change the situation instead of attempting to just deal with the situations.
Marx also said that a happiness which people get from religion is a fake happiness; thus if they gave up religion, then they can struggle against the bad condition that makes them need religion. However, this idea is incorrect because people depend on their religions to make significant decisions, to think about things that they don’t know or aren’t scientifically proven, and to deal with death. Believing in and contemplating on one’s own make the person feel very tranquil and sincere.
In short, although Marx point of made much more sense in the past history, it is hard to apply his beliefs to the lives in the modern life. People see religions as something that they can always rely on to seek who they really are.
2 comments:
Yukiko,
I agree with most of your points, and I also think that his view of religion cannot be applied to the world today. However, when Marx makes the comment about religion being the "opium of the people" I think this point has validity for his time, since the lower classes of that time were being used with religion, but at the same time they needed religion to overcome their situation. Nice post!
I agree very much with a lot you are saying. I also believe that Marx has a very critical view of religion. However, you say, "Marx said that religions take away from who you really are and teach humans to deal with the situation instead of attempting to change it" and then go on to say how you agree with this, I don't think he is correct in saying this. I do not believe that religion takes away from someone, in fact I think religion adds a lot to ones life and personality. Although some people do try to deal with their problems through their religion, I do not think that this is necessarily a bad thing. Also, I don't think people use religion as an excuse or a cover for their problems. His beliefs may have worked during his time, but it seems that they do not fit modern times as well as the past.
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