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Religion is Opium-- is it true

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  • 18-01-2010 11:52am
    #1
    leom
    Registered Users Posts: 112 ✭✭


    religion is opium for the people? what do you think
    Tagged:


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    #2
    Dades
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,558 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dades


    leom wrote: »
    religion is opium for the people? what do you think
    I think it's a valid assertion.
    [Misquote at your peril, btw, I was taken to task about it not long ago. :pac:]

    And people usually start threads describing what they think.


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    #3
    leom
    Registered Users Posts: 112 ✭✭leom


    Dades wrote: »
    I think it's a valid assertion.
    [Misquote at your peril, btw, I was taken to task about it not long ago. :pac:]

    And people usually start threads describing what they think.


    People have right to say what they think! This is what makes us human, Its blessing we do not think same.


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    #4
    Xluna
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,329 ✭✭✭Xluna


    leom wrote: »
    religion is opium for the people? what do you think

    If you're a Northern Protestant yes,if you're a Catholic-no,that would be alcohol.:rolleyes:


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    #5
    pH
    Registered Users Posts: 4,188 ✭✭✭pH


    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.

    It's argued a lot (especially online!) that this quote of Marx is not as anti-religious as it sounds, it's more nuanced than many make it out to be. For example we hear "opium" and we naturally think of it negatively - an addictive drug with no real purpose, however at the time of Marx's writing, there's a valid argument that it would have been understood more as a painkiller, a good thing in a way, something that could get you through things - the other quotes "heart of a heartless world" and "sigh of the oppressed creature" tend to back up this interpretation of "opium".


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    #6
    leom
    Registered Users Posts: 112 ✭✭leom


    pH wrote: »
    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.

    It's argued a lot (especially online!) that this quote of Marx is not as anti-religious as it sounds, it's more nuanced than many make it out to be. For example we hear "opium" and we naturally think of it negatively - an addictive drug with no real purpose, however at the time of Marx's writing, there's a valid argument that it would have been understood more as a painkiller, a good thing in a way, something that could get you through things - the other quotes "heart of a heartless world" and "sigh of the oppressed creature" tend to back up this interpretation of "opium".
    great


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