average person is someone who was fortunate enough to not have been messed up by life, correct?
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The Opium of the People
- Thread starter Cellar_Door
- Start date
average person is someone who was fortunate enough to not have been messed up by life, correct?
There is another aspect to it, which was that opium was the only real pain relief people had then. It was a blessing.Do you agree with this quote? Does religion just mask the real problems of society? Is it simply a tool to control and abate the masses?
Marx probably didn't mean it as shallowly as it's taken now.
maybe 'the most religious' whoever they are but then the average person does not need religion or any other excuses.
The average person, regardless of what their base motivation may be, obviously does need an excuse & "justification". Religion is the most common.
"blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth"
suits those in power quite a bit more than
"you have nothing to lose but your chains"
"The meek shall inherit shit." - David Lee Roth
The average person, regardless of what their base motivation may be, obviously does need an excuse & "justification". Religion is the most common.
you can say that all you want but it is just not true. i do see the macho attitudes men have and how it effects they way they treat others. whenever i have witnessed gay people being treated badly or derogatory remarks being made religion had absolutely nothing to do with it. That is from what i have witnessed on numerous occasions.
now if we take the gay marriage ban, as has been brought up, the thing about that is governments are not really excited about giving gays the right to marry. if they did they would and it would be forgotten about.
Its not clear how you propose that we really alleviate deathDefiantly yes.
I sometimes ask theists if they would worship God IF after this life they don't get to live on. What I mean is, they only get what God is and has been giving them here and now. Most people wouldn't. The Opium is really alleviating the worry about death. Until we can really alleviate that worry, there will always be a religion to do so. It's the cornerstone of ALL religions. After death you get life - and a good one too!
you can say that all you want but it is just not true. i do see the macho attitudes men have and how it effects they way they treat others. whenever i have witnessed gay people being treated badly or derogatory remarks being made religion had absolutely nothing to do with it. That is from what i have witnessed on numerous occasions.
now if we take the gay marriage ban, as has been brought up, the thing about that is governments are not really excited about giving gays the right to marry. if they did they would and it would be forgotten about.
I guess you can say that over & over & over but it is not true. There is much more to it than your experiences.
Its not clear how you propose that we really alleviate death
He didn't say anything about alleviating death.
There is another aspect to it, which was that opium was the only real pain relief people had then. It was a blessing.
Marx probably didn't mean it as shallowly as it's taken now.
sure marx's writing had a lot more depth than an online board can do justice to, but a blessing? marx was waiting for the raising of consciousness which would see all the proles finally reject the "pain relief" of religion, awake from their drugged stupor, rise up and restructure the way we run our society.
in a lot of ways, our current society (in Europe at least), there is a case to be made that tv and celebrity culture has replaced religion as the opium. these tools of control don't have to be directly used by the ruling class, it's something that grows out of the class system. nowadays the prospect of getting fame quickly on big brother or X-factor or even winning the lottery often take religions place. people don't see themselves as part of their class they see themselves as eventually getting out (so out of their council flat estate or into heaven) and accordingly don't work to improve their classes' lot.
Originally Posted by h05el1
well said! It's 1) Giving us a justification for war and power and 2) Letting us delude ourselves, in order to believe that we never die. It is instinctual to be afraid of death, therefore people want to believe it never happens. People need to get over that, in my opinion.
Also, isn't part of the reason we are afraid of death (aside from the clichéd 'fear of the unknown') the fact that we are dissatisfied with how we are living our lives? Asking ourselves - is this it? - is something we tend to put to the back of our minds for fear of the answer.
Originally Posted by Michael
After death you get life - and a good one too!
I'd say enough people need religion as to make it an almost permanent part of society. With this in mind, maybe it's best we decide which religions are best for a multicultural society?
In days of yore, the peasants working until they dropped in the fields found some comfort in the thought of being rewarded for it after death. But what about today? Most people, at least in the UK where I live, believe in the existence of God(s). Despite this, there seems to be less of the religious dogma that's been prevalent in the past. It's almost as though our beliefs are not united anymore.
Originally Posted by iceaura
There is another aspect to it, which was that opium was the only real pain relief people had then. It was a blessing.
Marx probably didn't mean it as shallowly as it's taken now.
Often 'Opium of the Masses' is quoted to refer to the dogma, blindness or plain stupidity of those who follow religion. However, this is not what I believe he was intending to say, and you're right in that its meaning is not as shallow as it may first appear.
Nevertheless, you're confusing an individual's spiritual plight with that of society as a whole. You mentioned the 'pain relief' of religion and faith, failing to appreciate that societies pains could be alleviated in much more effective ways. When our governments fail to serve our needs we turn to someone who is not answerable to us. Moreover, religion is so easily perverted to suit the uses of those in power. If you speak out against the regime, you speak out against God. I think it was Voltaire who said, "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him."
There is much more to it than your experiences.
Like what?
NOTE: i am not talking about obvious cases like Iran or have no interest to defend religion.
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The only possible way I can conceive of would be to reverse the aging processes and then you are lucky enough to not damage yourself. Sometimes in the far future, if you managed to last that long, you won't be you anyway so I suppose the point is mute.Its not clear how you propose that we really alleviate death
Even if you were to live in a heaven - you will not be "you".
Even if you were to be reborn - you are not "you".
Who here would be "shocked" to the point of disbelief if some scientist tomorrow published a paper on how to reverse the aging processes? Suppose it was backed up with hard reproducible science and easy enough that everyone could benefit from this work. I think most people (religious or otherwise) would asking when do I get my pills!