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Karl Marx views on religion
How religion affects society
Sociological theories on religion
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According to Karl Marx, religion is like other social institutions in that it is dependent upon the material and economic realities in a given society. It has no independent history; instead it is the creature of productive forces. As Marx wrote, “The religious world is but the reflex of the real world.”
Religion can only be understood in relation to other social systems and the economic structures of society. In fact, religion is only dependent upon economics, nothing else — so much so that the actual religious doctrines are almost irrelevant. This is a functionalist interpretation of religion: understanding religion is dependent upon what social purpose religion itself serves, not the content of its beliefs.
Marx’s opinion is that religion is an illusion that provides reasons and excuses to keep society functioning just as it is. Much as capitalism takes our productive labor and alienates us from its value, religion takes our highest ideals and aspirations and alienates us from them, projecting them onto an alien and unknowable being called a god.
Marx has three reasons for disliking religion. First, it is irrational — religion is a delusion and a worship of appearances that avoids recognizing underlying reality. Second, religion negates all that is dignified in a human being by rendering them servile and more amenable to accepting the status quo. In the preface to his doctoral dissertation, Marx adopted as his motto the words of the Greek hero Prometheus who defied the gods to bring fire to humanity: “I hate all gods,” with addition that they “do not recognize man’s self-consciousness as the highest divinity.”
Third, religion is hypocritical. Although it might profess valuable principles, it sides with the oppressors. Jesus advocated helping the poor, but the Christian church merged with the oppressive Roman state, taking part in the enslavement of people for centuries. In the Middle Ages the Catholic Church preached about heaven, but acquired as much property and power as possible.
Marx argues religion acts as a drug to be more exact like opium. People who usually do drugs do it typically because it is an escape from their problems. Likewise, people typically follow a religion because it help’s them escape from their problems. Following a religion helps them to numb the pain of reality. Some people born in society have it better than others and for those who do not religion turn into a great hope for them. Additionally, Marx goes onto say religion is man made and we do not need it to survive. Furthermore, the more people have the less they tend to care about religion. For example,
Marx predicted that religion would disappear as a phenomenon of false (because there is no God, according to Marx), and churches will become museums. All see how the number of churches in the world increases, a church becoming the heavy believers. However, the council rejected Marx, and yet kept his not believing in God.
In this essay Karl Marx will be discussed using his arguments concerning religion and religious institutions which is thought to play a powerful role in influencing a society and the lives of its members. Karl Marx (1818-1883) referred to religion as the ‘opium of the people’ (1975), like a misused drug it administers to true needs in false ways, however Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) defines religion as a “unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden-beliefs and practices which united in one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them”- Elementary Forms of Religious Life, however they both agree that religion is an important aspect to society. This essay
Karl Marx’s most prominent quote on religion refers to the contentment of the maltreated oppressed and the satisfied oppressor due to the desensitizing effect of religion. This perspective derives from Marx’s direct contact with the immense complications and disparities of the proletariats as well as the over-abundances of the bourgeoisie of his era. Unfortunately, traces of the accuracy of this inference are evident in the world’s history as well as current society. Marx concluded that religion numbs those suffering and those who inflict the pain into a dazed state of contentment without correcting the root of the issue.
"Karl Marx on Religion: The Opiate of the Masses?" About.com Agnosticism / Atheism. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 May 2014.
Marx argues that religion is the opiate of the masses; he says that religion is an ideological tool used to defend the interests of the dominant in society that are the wealthy and those in high positions of power. Religion is able to pacify the poor lower class of society by giving them something to look forward to besides their dull lackluster lives that are made that way by injustice in the social system.
The performance assessment and appraisal forms are crucial within the performance management system (Aguinis, 2014). However, the appraisal form within the case study provided is designed for the supervisor’s use thus missing one vital factor throughout the entire process, employee participation. Thus, questioning the validity and reliability of the process. This is especially concerning as the bottom 10 per cent of employees are being fired and the top 20 per cent are being rewarded with $5,000.00 based on what their supervisor records on the form without consultation with employees. Thus, supervisors may not provide accurate scores as they do not have to justify their responses (Aguinis,
There is an array of key components and factors involved in making an organization a successful business. One of those elements consists on evaluating employee’s performance; this sole component is critical in determining how effective is the organization’s productivity and which are the necessary steps to ensure proper functioning. “The performance appraisal may be one of the few times during the year where an employee and the reviewer, typically the employee's supervisor, can sit down and have a lengthy face-to-face discussion about all aspects of the job” (Joseph, 2016). Employees’ performance assessment serves as an instrument to gather important information as to which areas of the job description are being performed according to standards
The story that intrigued me the most was, A Good Man Is Hard To Find, by Flannery O’ Connor. I think there are some interwoven conflicts in this story, the main one being, the grandmothers inter conflict between what she thinks is morally the appropriate way of thinking and dealing with someone else 's(the misfits) idea of what is morally correct. I think what these folks are saying about the fundamental problems of being a human is, there is a difficulty in the fact that everyone has a different moral system that they live by, based on their life experience. There were many questions in our discussion that I found very interesting. Like, “Why do you think the mother decided to freely walk into the woods when asked "would you and that little
Marx argues that religion is just a man-made thing to create a community because humans can’t survive without community. He says that the communist government can replace the feeling of “being equal in God’s eye” to “being equal in the eyes of the law” (Wolff, 2003). Marxism fights for the freedom of the working class, who are usually paid minimum wage just to survive (Blunden, n.d.).
Marx views religion as a drug that gives the people temporary relief from their unhappiness, which inhibits them from conducting social change. To better understand Marx’ view of religion one must question, why is it so important that human beings stop looking to a metaphysical world for happiness? What is real happiness? And why does social change depend upon abandoning religion?
Following the Industrial Revolution in 19th century Europe, change was in full swing and religion began to have different meanings for different people. The upper-class citizens used Religion, namely Christianity, and the power that it possessed in an attempt to keep their high status in society, while the lower class turned to faith so that their lives could possibly improve. Instead of religion being the cornerstone of faith and worship amongst all people, it was being used for power and money by the upper class. Even worse, religious leaders were using the upper class people as well, gaining money and authority from their endorsement. A man by the name of Karl Marx saw what was happening and thus spoke out about it, declaring religion as “the opium of the people.”[1] He had a vision for equality, and wrote it down in the form of the Communist Manifesto; however nowhere in this document were aspirations of religious harmony. Religion was becoming the catalyst for class separation and social mayhem in 19th century Europe, and according to Karl Marx, equality was only possible with the abolition of it as a whole.
Karl Marx is often called the father of communism, but his life entailed so much more. He was a political economist, philosopher, and idea revolutionist. He was a scholar that believed that capitalism was going to undercut itself as he stated in the Communist Manifesto. While he was relatively ambiguous in his lifetime, his works had tremendous influence after his death. Some of the world’s most powerful and most populace countries follow his ideas to this day. Many of history’s most eventful times were persuaded by his thoughts. Karl Marx was one of the most influential persons in the history of the world, and a brief history of his life will show how he was able to attain many of his attitudes.
Marx saw religion as an evil that existed in society and that it brought down all the people that believed in that religion. Marx said that, ?It [religion] is the opium of the people,?[1] and in saying this, Marx meant that religion was contagious on society. Once the society had a taste for the religion, they became totally engulfed it in, and then they do not want to get out of that way of live because they see it as a good way to live. Then even if people wanted to get out of the religion it was hard to get out because the whole society had already been infected by the ?opium.?
There are several reasons organizations initiate performance evaluations, however the standard purpose for performance evaluations is to discuss performance expectations; not only from the employers perspective but to engage in a formal collaboration where the employee and the manager are both able to provide feedback in a formal discourse. There are many different processes an organization should follow when developing its performance evaluation tool; in addition essential characteristics that must accompany an effective performance appraisal process. I will discuss in detail the intent of a performance evaluation, the process an organization should follow in using its performance evaluation tool, along with the characteristics of an effective