Karl Marx quotation
On religion as the opium of the people

One of the more frequently quoted statements of Karl Marx is Religion is the opium of the people this being a translation of the German statement "Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes".

Many people, however, take this statement to be a plain and simple condemnation of religion but what Marx actually meant by saying that Religion is the Opium of the People is somewhat more subtle than this:-

... Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic 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.

Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun. . .

Slide Shows

Our Slide Shows summarise D-E-E-P Wisdoms about Human Existence
gleaned from World Faith teachings and other sources.

This slide show suggests that Human Nature has three main aspects:-     Materialistic, Spiritual, and Ethnic. Human Nature

These slides develop this view of Human Nature to consider wider questions:-     about God, about Man, and about Society. God, Man, and Society

Our web site is quite extensive so we have prepared this introductory page featuring these slide shows and offering this link that will direct you towards finding interesting, (but more detailed and philosophical), material about the "Tripartite" nature of Human Existence, about the Unfolding of History and about Comparative Religion.