Is religion the opium of the people?

Numinant,

I didn't say that ALL his ideas were eroneous. Nor did I say anything at all about expectations that Marx should have been infallible.

I was responding to the posted article. It suggested that religion is the opiate of the masses based on the evidence that "Marx said so." What did Marx get wrong. It would be easier to state what he got RIGHT (the list is shorter).

But if one were to attempt to distill Marx down to some essential thought, in my opinion it would be that the history of humanity is the history of class struggle...and that the outcome of that struggle is inevitable.

In my view (and this is just my opinion, but I am as entitled to mine as everybody else is to theirs):

1) His attempts to lump all of humanity into well-defined "classes" is at one and the same time wishful thinking and lazy thinking. People simply don't fit into molds just because Marx wants them to. True, society is a good deal more complex today than it was back at the time Marx was writing Das Kapital, but I don't think people were so easily categorized even then. He saw the OUTLINES of a pattern, proposed his Grand Theory of Everything, and then tried to hammer reality to fit his theory, and

2) "Struggle" assumes that those in the lower/lowest economic strata ever had even the slightest chance of winning. They had as much chance as a toddler would have had of knocking Mike Tyson out in a boxing match in his prime. That may not be "good" or "ideal" or "the best possible world," but it is the one in which we live.

Freud was a giant in his field -- no question in my mind. The biggest reason so many of his notion have proved to be so wildly wrong is because he had to invent his own field. Today's researchers in the fields of psychology and brain science have massive amounts of research upon which to rely -- and even THEY (at least the honest ones) will admit that they are only now learning how to even frame many of the right QUESTIONS, let alone begin to seek the answers to those questions. Freud's analysis of the mind and its workings evoked images of him swimming about in a great bowl of thick stew. Every once in a while, he would bump into something in the murk and recognize...a carrot. Few if any of his peers or predecessors could even swim...

Which ideas of Marx's have been debunked? The most questionable one is that if violent revolution, because it never seems to proceed as planned. Still, even if Marx were wrong on several fronts, that doesn't mean that all of his ideas are erroneous.

Freud was often wrong about things, but his general ideas were seminal in establishing psychology as a respectable science.

Even Einstein was supposedly wrong on occasion. Genius isn't the same thing as infallibility.

Hmmmm. I wonder just how many of Marx's crackpot ideas have to be debunked before people will stop citing them. Then again, he HAS become something of a cottage industry in his own right. I appreciate that irony VERY much.

Next you will be citing Freud...

religion uplifts with one hand and destroys with the other...usually

religion is a man made thing...it's a tradition that is past down from generations to generations and over time is tainted and the true religion goes under...and now we have what we see today with church's and preachers on every street corner...God is the only true religion (if u want to use that), He has created all...His Word is so powerful, we just dont understand...but there will be the day when we all will know who HE is. and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess...that YAWEH, is the one and only creator...He is Love...man's self-rule has come to an end...

I have always agreed with Marx's comparison of religion to Opium. Isn't it so ironic that some of the most disparaged, powerless, and victimized peoples also tend to be the most devoutly religious? From the slaves of the south to the Jews of the Holocaust, to the Tibetan monks; devout followers of a given religion are nearly impossible to shake from their beliefs in the worst of times. You could even say that hard times tends to make people cling even more tightly to their religion. Religion is the ultimate anesthetic.

Well, religion main purpose is the answer the question many ourselves can't answer. it's like a pain-killer, it just fills in the void. I'm Christin so it's weird. I believe, but at the very same time I don't doubt what religion does. Many believe because they don't want to believe in anything else. It's cocaine to a crack addict, you have to have it.

ethic structures in the east seem more sound in societal codes. but Christianity has gone to far. its become something that wasnt intended for sure.

I've often wondered if the name Jesus wasn't just a mispronunciation ,like they were trying to say" hey Zeus"
Thats what the name sounds like in Spanish

He may have felt differently had he been familiar with Buddhism or Jungian psychology. Religion doesn't always have to be centered in superstition and delusion. However, in practice it often is, so I suppose I agree with the spirit of the sentiment, but not without qualifying it thus.

No, it's the crutch of society.

Being religious is like being in a relationship. If you cannot see the flaws and accept them as part of the package deal, your relationship will fail.

He is truly right, although I do explain of what he says in a entirely different way....

In such a world, as Earth, he has explained completely and fully to the extent.... its just a pity that no one, will have the sufficiency enough to acknowledge his words....

...