What do you think of the Karl Marx quote: "Religion is the opiate of the masses"?
by 
Polly Math
ANSWERS: 16
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Religion has been used to control the masses. Like it is being done by the Taliban. But religion does teach compassion and forgiveness. Without it I dont think mankind would have survived this long...+5
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I disagree. Religion can be a great thing that has helped mankind. Unfortunatly there are people who do terrible things in the name of religion. I never blamed religion for wars. I blame people for that.
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Another self absorbed atheist. He and the other idiots like Hitler, Stalin, Lennin and Mao have proven just how empty their philosophies were.
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I think of religion sort of like training wheels... it has some limited value, I would not want to see it eliminated. But the problem is, if continued too long, development is stunted. Buddhism is the only religion I know of that has it's own self-destruct button: the Buddha considered his teachings to be like a raft you use to cross the river -- when you get to the other side, you should discard the raft, not carry it around forever. Likewise, when someone has resolved the split between themselves and the world, they should unbolt the training wheels and ride.
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Karl Marx was a brilliant man, and I agree with this quote. The common man has neither the capacity nor the time to resolve life's issues rationally. He would much rather be presented with cut and dry answers which he will accept without question. He does not want to put in the effort to think and reason, which is what matters to him at bottom. Religion provides him with a ready "solution" to almost every common situation he is likely to encounter. Never mind if the solution is totally inadequate or even misleading. In the event of a conflict, he would unthinkingly turn to the "dictates" of his religion to resolve it. This often results in clashes between two (or more) "non-thinking" groups, each group adamant about the "rightness" of its own narrow, and often completely distorted, view. I find "god is not great" by Christopher Hitchens is a must-read for every person who thinks about religion rationally. Be warned he is an atheist, and his views can be disturbing (if not downright repugnant) to some. But there is much to learn if you take it up with an open mind.
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I agree partially with the quote although i would go further and say that ideaology is the oppiate of the masses he was selling communism and an eventual statless utopian society. Communism itself was/is a quasi religious idea. Any "common goal" is essential for mankind to thrive whether it just be survival/world domination/general prosperity or an afterlife.
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It dulls the mind in that it answers all questions. If a mystery exists. God knowa and faith endures. The early colonists got burnt for doubting this.
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It show's he was a lousy historian of the preceding 2000 years. Say what you will of the Reformation, the Wars of Religion, the early conquests of Islam, and all the cases of people killing each other over utterly trivial points of their own religions (you know the Russians were killing each other for over century over whether you crossed yourself with 2 fingers or 3?), but one thing's for sure: they weren't a bunch of passive, contented, stoned-out lotus eaters. And there was nothing and no one the worldly contented masters of the world feared or loathed more than truly and passionately religious subjects demanding their rulers to live and rule piously and righteously. The quote also demonstrates Marx's complete ignorance of the actual masses. If he'd ever bothered to actually befriend any of them, he'd have known he had it reversed: OPIUM IS THE RELIGION OF THE MASSES.
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Agreed!
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i agree partially but religion has also kept people in peace it's good to be religious only problem it becomes hostile when 2 religions come in contact with one another thats a problem.
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he was a very wise man it's true the only good thing about communism is it was anti-religion.
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He was pretty much spot on. Goes along well with the quote by Lucius Annaeus Seneca: "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful."
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That he was not religious! :)
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I totally agree with him.
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It makes sense.Religion does cause people to think and do things in the name of religion that are not logical.An opiate distorts the mind and causes an alteration to the mind.That would be the case on a mass scale.
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It think Marx was hopped up on drugs when he said that.
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