Marxism

• Religion is only a feature of a class-divided conflict based society
• Marx: Religion is a belief system that distorts peoples perception of reality - serving the bourgeoisie
• Marx: religion misleads the working class into believing their suffering is virtuous and they will be rewarded in the after life. 'it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God' - Christianity
• Lenin: Religion is a 'spiritual gin' - an intoxicant doled out to the masses by the bourgeoisie to confused them and remove class consciousness
• Religion legitimates the bourgeoisie by stating that they have the divine right to rule
• Disobedience from the proletariat is not just illegal but a sinful challenge against god
• Marx (1844): religion is the product of alienation where the proletariat are disconnected to the products of their labour
• Marx 1844: 'Religion is the opium of the people'
• Marx 1844: 'sigh of the oppressed creature', 'the soul of soulless conditions'
• Religion is a distorted view of the world and can offer no solution to earthly misery
• The promise of an afterlife distracts and creates an illusion that distracts attention from the true source of suffering, capitalism
• Religion is the product of alienation