Marx and Engels on Religion

Religion is not the disease, but merely a symptom. When Karl Marx declared religion the opium of the people, he voiced a central tenet of the philosophy that bears his name. Social control is the means by which society tries to ensure that its members adhere to behaviours others expect of them (norms). It presents the full arsenal of ideas with which Marx and Engels hoped to explode the religious foundations of all previous societies. What Engels said of the satirist Lucian could be said of them too: "from [their] shallow rationalistic point of view one sort of superstition was as stupid as the other". In the preceding chapter we found that in spite of his critical approach to Hegelian philosophy Marx never lost interest in Hegel, and that the problem of the continuity of Marx’s thought was bound up with his continuing interest in Hegel. It presents the full arsenal of ideas with which Marx and Engels hoped to explode the religious foundations of all previous societies. In this collection of essays and letters by Marx and his colleague, Friedrich Engels, the founders of Marxism discuss their perspectives on the origins and essence of religion. Marx may have developed his own Aufhebung religion in terms of the fetish (in which it became a core feature of capitalism as the ‘Capital-fetish’, or when money seems to produce more money in and if itself), but Engels took a somewhat different approach. Agents of social control… This is the most representative collection of writings on religion by the two founding fathers of communism. The religious world is but the reflex of the real world; 2 June 1853 Engels To Marx. But for Marx and Engels, the problem is not Religion; the problem is society! Marx may have developed his own Aufhebung religion in terms of the fetish (in which it became a core feature of capitalism as the ‘Capital-fetish’, or when money seems to produce more money in and if itself), but Engels took a somewhat different approach. WAR, RELIGION AND ATHEISM Part 2: Marx and Engels “COMMUNISM BEGINS FROM THE OUTSET WITH ATHEISM” – Karl Marx I apologize for only one thing in writing this series: that it is a dark, depressing subject. Agents of social control… Social control is the means by which society tries to ensure that its members adhere to behaviours others expect of them (norms). Marx and Engels' View and Purpose of Religion Essay 1960 Words | 8 Pages. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Source: Marx and Engels on Religion, Progress Publ., Moscow 1957. Karl Marx was a German philosopher who attempted to examine religion from an objective, scientific perspective. Social Control Both Marx and his colleague Engels saw religion as a tool of social control. Karl Marx, part 1: Religion, the wrong answer to the right question Peter Thompson Marx thought that to understand religion correctly would allow one … This can be both formal and informal and be from rewards and sanctions. From Marx’s materialistic perspective, religion serves to mystify the real relations between men and inanimate objects. This paper presents a descriptive criticism of Islam in Marx's critique of religion.