According to Karl Marx, the rich invented religion to control the poor. He stated that religion was the “opiate of the masses”. He said, “religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand.”
Marx believed religion was invented to control the masses
Karl Marx wrote about dialectical materialism, which was built on Hegel’s theory of dialectical idealism.
While Hegel believed that the whole scope of history is simply the unfolding of the absolute idea, the supreme mind becoming incarnate, Marx wasn’t satisfied with that view of history.
Marx believed that history developed as a result of conflict and tension that existed among material factors and forces, chiefly conflicts that emerged over economics. He saw the political and legal structures of the world were all based on the concerns that were being engaged in with respect to economic conflicts.
Regarding religion, Marx argued that religion was invented by the ruling classes to keep the masses under control. He recognized that the law codes always reflected the vested interests of the rich, and what the rich fears most is a popular insurrection. Since the masses always have more physical power than the ruling class, they had to find ways to keep the masses contented and stop them from revolting.
Religion teaches obedience to the master and delayed reward
What religion teaches, according to Marx, is obedience of the slave to the master. It places great value on submission and humility, and sees adventurous, arrogant self-assertion as a sin. Religion also teaches that we should expect deferred gratification–that the reward we should seek is not the materialism of this world, but rather the spiritual blessings we should come to expect in heaven. Slave owners would cultivate this religion among slaves, in the hope that they would remain content to stay slaves for the rest of their lives. In the meantime, the slave owners were enjoying all the fruits of their labor here and now.
There’s little doubt that history is full of examples that demonstrate how the ruling class has used their material and legal advantages to exploit the working class, and have also used religion as one way to help subjugate their workers. However, Marx’ theory never tries to disprove the existence of God, because it was assumed He never existed in the first place. If he was right, then Marx’ theory could be a a plausible reason for the invention of God and religion.
Proving that God doesn’t exist is impossible
The task of the atheist to prove the non-existence of God is a fool’s errand. If God transcends space and time, how can anyone prove He doesn’t. It would be like me trying to prove there is no purple coin anywhere in Alaska. I would have to search every square inch and find none in order to prove my claim. It just can’t be done.
Once people stop believing in God, the problem is not that they will believe in nothing; rather, the problem is that they will believe anything.
C. S. Lewis
Discover more about God and our relationship to Him
For a listing of other posts, go to our Posts Directory web page. These posts are listed by major topic for your convenience.
But, if you’re now ready to know what your relationship is before God, Ask yourself two very important questions. First, are you sure that you’ll go to heaven when you die? Secondly, are you certain why God should let you into heaven? If you don’t know for sure, you can settle that matter today. Visit my post, How to Begin Your Life Over Again and you’ll know where and how you’ll spend eternity.
And for crystal clear YouTube presentations of the gospel message from several trusted sources, click here.