“Religion is the opium of the masses”. Karl Marx’s verdict again religion has an enduring sense to it for its finality and tone. It makes you dissect the truth (or fallacy) of the statement. But then it really depends on how you perceive “opium” whether it is a good thing or a bad thing. Though the first time I heard of the statement, during my teens on the aura of my parents’ constant reproach on drugs, “opium of the masses” seems to have a sinful pronouncement that have some echo of truth on it.
“Religion as an opium” of the masses might be a cool slogan or it can just be plainly absurd. At first glance it is just some hip rallying cry for the oppressed against the elite few. Or does it have some sense of truth in it? But what about the individual? Does it translate from what constitute the masses? Are religions supposed to be the opium for the individuals too? Does the idea of a “Divine Being” (or “Beings”) produces the resultant pacifying and pleasure giving concept it tries to achieve just as what “opium” is meant to be used? Or is there anything else other than the sense of hope, peace, love and justice that can be achieved from religions?
Most individuals needs some form of “opium” in our every day lives. Otherwises, the stress, the ups and mostly the downs of life would just be painful to bear. It could be our relationships, our hobbies, some form of art/science work that we get involved with or it could be our jobs. It could be any form of how we dress (or undress) the outside world to momentarily relieve ourselves of its realities. I am not a philosphy expert so I won’t really get into an existential discussion on that, but I do believe that people need some form of “escape” once in a while.
Religion functions the same thing too. Now I might be a bit biased since my familiarity with religions is limited to those that originated from an area called “the Middle East”. But, the concept seems to be quite universal.
It has really good news about life (and death in most cases) for anyone who is ready to believe in it. The promises of rewards for good deeds give individuals hope on their lives. Even if those rewards are promised in the after-life. The sense of hope is a great panacea since it makes your surrounding a bit rosier to take. From a psychological point of view, religion does offer a good answer and remedy for this “sickness” of/from life. It is not surprising to see that all of the (mainstream) religions (even more nihilistic ones such as Buddhism) see life as a very valuable thing and all try to protect it. Even in Islam, which is to some extent a socialist religion, the life of each individual is valued at that of life of all members of her/his society.
The failure of religion sprang from how other forms of “opium” can fail (1) You can be disconnected from its source and your world would just collapse on you.leaving you in a void (2) You can overdose from it. This can even fatal for you and to others.
I once asked why people get too defensive (or offensive) when a discussion on religion and their personal belief system (or the lack of it) comes up. I never quite get a satisfactory answer to that. I still try to understand that myself. As I stated in my very first post, politics and religion seems to be two discussions that is quite divisive and turns into such heated ones. A lot of people seems to get a personal take on what they stand for. Just look at Roger’s previous post. His pronouncement of “God Bless America” though it might have been put up with not much malice turned into a discussion about “chosen people” and the gender of God. And previous to that, all those US Election blogs do get people posting numerous replies.
I have concluded a long time ago that religion is quite incapacitated to rule in the modern society. I won’t even include it as one of the pillars of modern society even in its “opium” format.
Picture of the day
This individual jumped into the lion’s den at the Taipei zoo with the intention of converting them to Christianity. Stories and more pictures in Local 6 news site
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.