What was the impact of the quote religion is the 'opiate of the people'?

Answer 1

This is a famous quote from Karl Marx, that religion is the opiate of the masses. What he meant was that religion, like opium, is used as a kind of pain killer. When society is filled with economic and social injustice, people are abused by their employers, their landlords, their government, and so forth, they don't have enough food to eat, there are all sorts of terrible problems, they always have religion to comfort them. The belief that they will still receive an eternal reward in heaven is used to reconcile people to the suffering that they experience on Earth. Or as Woody Guthrie put it, there'll be pie in the sky, when you die.

Answer 2

Karl Marx's quote "Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes"-- translated as "religion is the opiate of the masses" comes from the introduction of his work "Contribution to Critique of Hegel's Philosohpy of Right".

In saying this, Marx is pointing out that religion is an excellent mechanism for appeasing and gratifying a populace without actually doing anything for them. Opium addiction was rampant in his time. Opium users were generally regarded as hiding from the world in a drug-induced stupor. The drug puts users into a euphoric state regardless of their actual situation in life.

Religion can be used, and has been used many times in history, by the ruling class to calm and pacify a people who otherwise may have every reason to be rebellious and militant.

Karl Marx used this reasoning as the basis for the Atheism which is so prevelant in his ideals.

The quote is often used outside of Marxism as an argument for secular government in general.

The following is a larger quote which puts our subject into context.

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Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man-state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d'honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion. 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. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo. -- Karl Marx

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Answer 3

I think you have misquoted Marx. Marx says that 'Religion is the opiate of the Masses'. Religion is, in his view, a drug which keeps the mass of the population sedated. Obviously Marx is critical of this situation. He sees the Church as something which does not do for the mass of people what he thinks that it should. The Church he sees as a tool of the establishment in keeping poor people poor. He is referring primarily to what he sees in the society of 19th century Britain: Times have changed, but the veneer is stll quite thin, you do not have to look very far, perhaps, to see the point he was making....

As Karl Marx was an atheist, religion was a prospective enemy of social revolution. Religious leaders were a group that wielded political power. Marx also not only saw religion as a problem in Great Britain, but one in Germany as well.

Answer 4

The famous quote by Marx that religion is the opiate of the people, had no impact on the common man. All it did was reinforce the ideas of people who already believed it. Marx may have phrased it differently than others.

Answer 5

The quote "religion is the opiate of the people" was coined by Karl Marx to imply that religion can act as a tool for social control and distraction from societal issues. It suggests that religious beliefs can be used to pacify or sedate the masses, preventing them from questioning their circumstances or striving for social change. This quote has been interpreted to critique the role of religion in maintaining the status quo and reinforcing existing power structures.

Answer 6

marx was a close friend of the german poet heinrich heine, in one of his poems heine likens religion to opium in a glass.

Answer 7

Karl Marx