Religion, Inequality, and Conflict

While religion offers all of these advantages, conflict theory contends that it can also reinforce and
encourage societal conflict and inequality. Karl Marx, who said that religion was the "opiate of the
masses" (Marx, 1964), was a major influence on this viewpoint. He meant by this that religion, like a
drug, keeps people content with their current circumstances. Marx emphasized over and time again that
the bourgeoisie must be overthrown by the working class. He claimed that in order to achieve this,
people first had to admit that their bourgeois oppressors were to blame for their impoverishment. But
he claimed that religious individuals have a propensity to interpret their poverty in terms of religion.

They believe that being impoverished is God's desire for them, either as a means of trying their faith in
him or as a result of breaking his laws. Many people think they will be rewarded in the afterlife if they
put up with their pain. Because of their religious beliefs, they do not consider the capitalist class to be to
fault for their poverty and do not revolt. Marx argued that these factors contribute to the poor's
acceptance of their fate and the maintenance of the current social disparity system.