“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless

world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people,” as stated
by Karl Marx. Talking about opium or opiate, immediately, we assume we know
what opium means: a drug that dulls feelings and pain, giving a false sense of
well-being and eventually leading to an early death. In other words, it is a
painkiller that does not address the source of the pain. But according to Karl
Marx’s concept, he relates the meaning of opium metaphorically to religion.
Why? And in what way? I will give you an example, when you’re sick, who do you
call to? When you’re in emotional pain, who do you pray to? When someone in
your family meets an accident, who do you talk to and pray? It is the Almighty
God right? That is the concept of Marx’s text. With the beliefs of your religion,
your pain is addressed but just as an illusion, like an opium.
To expound his context, Marx believed that religion had certain practical
functions in society that were similar to the function of opium in a sick or injured
person: it reduced people's immediate suffering and provided them with pleasant
illusions which gave them the strength to carry on. However, Marx also saw
religion as harmful, to his revolutionary goals, as it prevents people from seeing
the class structure and oppression around them, thus religion can prevent the
socialist revolution or the structural changes to society. That is why Karl Marx
wanted to abolition religion because it is just an illusory happiness of people
demanding real happiness and he wanted people to see what is the reality.
Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has
either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again from the
battles of life. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is
the world of man – state, society. This state and this society produced and
created religion. Religion is the general theory of this world, its moral sanction, its
solemn complement, and its universal basis of moral and justification. Moreover,
with the cruelty of the world, we lean towards our religion as our source of
strength and as the solution whenever we experience struggles and problems in
life. With the practice of religion, there is an illusion of comfort and happiness. I
know that some of you would also agree with Karl Marx. Indeed, “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…The abolition of religion as
the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness”