Is Religion the Opium of the People?

Karl Marx famously said, "Religion is the opium of the people." But what did he mean by this?

Twitter: @andrewmarkhenry

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[tomormiston]

Why on earth is this video age restricted? It's a perfectly decent discussion on religon !?

[ScholarVisual]

After skimming through the comments, Ive noticed people hate the fact this guy has a very non bias nuanced position.

[MyNameIsCain]

I really appreciate the attention paid to both sides of the argument, and how you gave actual context for that argument. It's nice to see the high quality of your videos. Keep up the good work!

[praatofeito]

As someone who studied philosophy for the last 8 years, I’m so happy with this video.

[grgr]

The Iranian Revolution is not a good example to proove marx was wrong about the opressive power of religion. From a marxist perspective, it was and is completely reactionary.

[hexwolfi]

When you talked about religion being revolutionary, I immediately thought of the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) in China, and the Ikko-Ikki (c. 1450-1586) and Shimabara (1637-1638) rebellions in Japan. Both the Taiping and Shimabara rebellions were actually Christian movements, interestingly enough.

[PvtPuplovski]

Regardless of what became of his words after his death, Marx was insanely insightful into human psychology and society.

[heilonghuangdi]

Nice! No bias, just pure information. This is awesome.

[kunderemp]

When Marxism came to Netherland-Indies (now Indonesia), the first generation who eager to learn Marx were Muslim activists including Hatta (the first vice president and also the prime minister).

[lucaswilkins]

I think you misunderstand the "misinterpretation". It is not incorrect to say that Marx is saying that religion is a pain killer: as the point is that, like a pain killer, it something that treats the symptoms, not the causes, and like opium in particular, as it lets one forget being in pain (in this case, the pain of being oppressed). The mistake of people saying that the quote likens religion to make believe nonsense are not, as you claim, mistakenly thinking that it is about analgesia (because it is), but are making a mistake about medical function and subjective experience of taking opium (hallucinations and delusion being neither a very common effect, nor a medically desirable one).

[Saracita]

Another wonderfully executed video!  Planning to use this in my seminar today!  You are providing such a great service, so thank YOU!

[commiechu]

I appreciate you approaching you approaching this nuance. Marx very likely would have agreed about the revolutionary potential of religion *in certain contexts*. He proposed the motive force of history as being class struggle, but obviously this struggle had not always happened under the banner of a scientifically elucidated philosophy. Engels, Marx's friend and close collaborator, wrote a lot about the radical reformation in the German peasant war and saw Thomas Muentzer as a predecessor of Communism, for example.

[genicadelara]

Very well explained. Thank you. I never expected religion can be this complex.

[nicogarduce]

You sir earned my sub! Great video! will recommend your vids to my professors and friends :)

[HerodotVonHalikarnas]

I think you need to take Marx' specific perspective more into account: Marx saw progress in the light of a materialistic inversion of Hegelian idealism and even Hegel had a secularized conception of Progress. Looking at the history of the idea of progress, you will find that the German idealists, in following Kant, had a conception of progress that was originally inspired by christian eschatology, with the important distinction that their historical progress was to take place in THIS world. And the same can be said of Marx's idea of progress. Given that the religion most appearant to Marx was christianity, it becomes obvious why Marx had to think of religion as an obstacle to progress: Christianity promises a second life after death, but practically demands compliance with authorities in this life and promotes Jobean perseverance under injustice, because christianities telos lies beyond this world.

[abdullahmashhood]

Greetings from Pakistan! Thank you so much for such an insightful video. I have a query. Where can one find Meredith McGuire's Religion: the social context. I want to read it for a college essay but its neither available in the market, nor in the libraries and nor on the internet. Any guidance about how to get access to this book will be appreciated. Thank you!

[maxonmendel]

Christian here. I love your nuanced, unbiased approach to this. I need religion because I am poor and oppressed, and religion helps me be okay with that. I still would like to make enough to support a family one day, but I’ve learned that I don’t need fast cars or a big house or 1300 acres.

I used to need that for some reason. Without religion, I would be the person that spent 20 years keeping up with the Jones and never finding joy. I don’t need religion because it’s good. I need it because I am so bad. I’m damaged goods.

Better for me to be in quiet fellowship with close friends than to be strung out on real dope, though.

[LibertarianLeninistRants]

a marxist here, thanks for you objective analysis, its hard to find something like this

[bamiayobamiayo]

Gramsci, a Marxist intellectual protégé of Karl Marx, amplifies my concerns:

“For Gramsci, Marxism could supersede religion only if it met people's spiritual needs, and to do so people would have to think of it as an expression of their own experience.”

[MrDXRamirez]

Excellent and one of the first young American to examine the subject with objectivity. Bravo!