What exactly is religion?

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"Religion is only the illusory sun which revolves round man as long as he does not revolve round himself". Karl Marx. 

What exactly is religion?

Before we can look at the Marxist theory of religion we must first have some understanding of what religion is. For many in todays world religion is becoming something alien, only 3% of the population of Britain attend Church! Religion is, however, much more than simple Church attendance, something that has never been high amongst the British working-class. Religion for me involves two things: beliefs and practices, or, rituals. Roland Robertson defines religion in the following succinct manner: 

"(religion) refers to the existence of supernatural beings that have a governing effect on life" 

This is as clear a definition of religion as I have come across. Religion refers to the existence of beings that transcend nature, that is, they do not conform to the laws of nature. These supernatural beings are superhuman, they can perform tasks that no creature on earth could possibly perform. This definition of religion may, however, lead to some religions not being defined as religions. No definition is perfect. 

Religion also involves practices or rituals. What is a ritual? For me it is simply some repeated pattern of human action which has some religious significance or connection. For example, marriage ceremonies in churches, baptism, prayer, confession, confirmation are all rituals. Such rituals can be conceived of in ideological terms, or in terms of control. They are symbolic in nature often expressing ideas of power lying outside of humanity, in God or supernatural beings. They are also forms of control because once enveloped in the ritual it is difficult to go against the ritual. How do you object? The only thing to do is not to go to the ritual. Imagine getting up in the middle of one of the Ministers  prayers and stating your objections, you would either be ignored or thrown from the place of worship. Rituals are sacred, not to be interrupted or questioned. 

What I'm concerned with here is less the ritual aspect of religion as the beliefs that form religions and the religious hierarchies that hold a measure of power, in some societies more than others, vis-à-vis the State and civil society in general.
 
 

What did Marx and Engels think of religion?

Marx had as much time for religion as the religious had for Marxism. For Marx religion is an illusion, a creation of humanity. God did not create humanity: humanity creates its Gods. The phenomenon of religion is part of what Marx refers to as alienation. Alienation is a situation in which the creations of humanity appear alien, that is, we do not recognise our own hand in their creation and assign to them powers that only we ourselves possess or could possess if only we did not assign them to superhuman beings that do not exist. 

Marx was very much influenced by the work of philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach. According to Feuerbach God was merely a projection of humanity's attributes, desires and potentialities. Once men realised this they would appropriate these attributes for themselves. 

While Marx was very much influenced by Feuerbach his theory of religion goes beyond that of Feuerbach. He agrees that religion is indeed a creation of humanity, what else could it be? As Feuerbach puts it:"...Thought arises from being - being does not arise from thought." Even religious beliefs, and "sacred texts", require humanity to have existed, and more importantly, formulated the ideas that form any given religion. This is called "materialism" as opposed to "idealism". Religion is the purest expression of idealism although Christians would deny this. Marx, however, believed that the existence and continued presence of religion in the world is to be found in the conditions of this world. He writes: 

"The foundation of irreligious criticism is this: man makes religion, religion does not make man. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world...This state, this society, produces religions inverted attitude to the world, because they are an inverted world themselves. Thus the struggle against religion is indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion...Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the feeling of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless circumstances. It is the opium of the people..." 

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This sounds rather complicated and opaque but basically what he means is that the conditions of this world creates and sustains the beliefs that the religious hold with regard to the next world. It is capitalism, and before that all the other exploitative systems of production, which have given birth to religions. Religion is the opium of the people, that is, it acts as a kind of pain killer. Religion makes bearable the unbearable, such as: poverty, hunger, inequality and repression. The source of religion is not to be found in the religious mind, some scholars claimed that such a ...

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