Marx on 'the opium of the people'

Abstract

Marx's experience of religion was very limited. He seems to have had little interest in the religious question, and only turned his mind to it when polemical situations demanded some kind of response. And what he has to say is neither very original nor very profound. In fact, I think it is not unfair to say that we would not need to concern ourselves with Marx's views on religion at all, were it not for the fact that the Communist Party claims to act in his name and find in Marx the legitimation of its own attitudes towards religion. In this way, the ideas of Marx have had massive and often devastating consequences for believers.