It was a quotation from Karl Marx's 1843 Contribution to Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right .
Karl Marx
The phrase "opium of the masses" was coined by Karl Marx to describe religion as a tool used by the ruling class to keep the working class passive and content with their oppressed conditions. It suggests that religion can be used to distract and pacify people, preventing them from seeking social change.
The quote 'religion is the opiate of the masses' is attributed to Karl Marx, who wrote 'Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes' in his unpublished work A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy, the introduction of which was published in Marx's journal Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher. The full quote is '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.'
Bill Shankly
Karl Marx wrote it in the introduction to his book "Contribution to Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right" from 1843. It also often translated from the German it was written in as "Religion is the opiate of the masses".
The Catholic Church burns incense at certain special Masses but has never burned opium.
"The opium of the people".
You mean "opium of the people". Opium is a narcotic. It make people less analytical.
The actual expression is "Religion is the opiate of the masses" with no mention of any specific group. The saying is is one of the most frequently quoted statements of Karl Marx. The implication is that any religion, if it is used as an escape or an excuse to not deal with what you need to deal with, it is as if you were sleeping or on drugs. Or that religion is used by governments to keep the population quiescent.
Capitalism and religion. Marx rejected the economic system of Capitalism because it resulted (among other reasons) in the oppression of the masses by the owners of the means of production or upper class. He also rejected religion calling it the opium of the people inflicted upon them by the upper class to keep them under control.
As opium is drug which leaves the mind in a state of false images or false realities. So do some religions confuse those who partake in its doctrine. There are confused as to what is truth. Confusion is not of God for His house is a house of order. religion become opium to the people because they have different views of what they believe and knows .
Marx meant that religion functions as a tool for keeping the oppressed masses passive and content with their circumstances by offering a form of comfort and distraction. Just as opium can dull physical pain, religion can numb the psychological pain of exploitation and inequality, thus preventing people from seeking genuine solutions to their suffering.
Religion is just a faith in one particular being, which are usually gods or God. Religion isn't supposed to be a means for controlling the masses, but in medieval times when the church was corrupted, it was. Today, religion isn't a means for controlling the masses. It can be