h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Things have moved on since that nice Mr Marx. Opium for the people now includes sport, TV, internet, computer games, shopping and houseprices!

If you dont believe me, and want to give yourself a scare, try "Remoteley Controlled" by Aric Seligman for scientifically based critique into the effects the "bluelight" is having on "the people" around the planet!

Opium for the people is anything which keeps them subdued and uncreative, and unlikely to stand up for themselves, M8, and dont let it happen to us or our tribe!

Being a native speaker of the wonderful German language, I was able to track down the original quote, in which the wording is "religion is the opium *of* the people." Well, and here comes it (quite an eye-opener for me): Opium was, at Marx's time, a drug as well as medication. Something that actually might actually help people in times of need.

Of course, the criticism was that religion was being used by the governing people to subdue the masses. But this criticism was not so much aimed against religion, but against those who (ab-)use it.

Today's understanding of the Marx quote is that it criticizes religion for distracting people away from their problems. In that, you are right, religion is only one such mechanism, real estate prices and hootoo are others. But unlike Marx's religion that he saw as representing good sides as well, the internet (excepting hootoo, of course) and sports and such lack the consoling, helping qualities.

Y.

I'm struggling to think of a situation where religion has done anything but cause Trouble! And in the social context where marx was doing his analysis, I'd be astonished if "the people" would have many opportunities to question the "medication" with which they were being stabbed in the ass. My feeling is that the established churches kept people docile with romises that even though their current situation was near-slavery, they would reap the rewards after death. A long, grim road to a profound disappointment, methinks.

Oh my... I can't believe that I actually wrote that religion had "healing powers" that sports, the internet and gambling lacked. I guess that such "healing powers" are the same in all of these - get people to forget about worries fears. Which only gets you so far because religion (the Yahweh-related ones, anyway; I don't know much about others) also instills fear (damnation and all that), gambling may lead to loss of control, money etc.

I don't know whether people in Marx's days had a chance to question their medication. But then again, going to the dentists to have your teeth pulled, you might not question his medication, either. I'd go with the anesthetist's shot, any day. Or is the difference here that I know I could decline the offer of narcosis but choose not to?

I agree that churches kept people going with empty promises and that people suffered throughout their lives with no rewards after they died. Maybe it is somewhat cynical of me to think this, but still: at least the people *had* something to look forward to, they *had* some hope (or maybe even hope for hope...). That this hope was only a lie does not change the fact that it offered them comfort (if it did). (1)

The obvious answer here is that the social (and societal) conditions needed (need) to change. And yes, religion did not do much in that way. Quite the contrary - religion helped (helps) to uphold the unjust system. But if these this *is* the situation, within that framework religion did help people to carry on.

Had there been no promise of salvation and rewards after death, their lives would have been even more bleak. But then again, had there been no religion, there might have been unrest much sooner, leading to new, better social conditions. Or maybe not. Speculation is all this is.

(1) Even more cynical: luckily for the people, they did (do) not notice the profound disappointment that they do not enter any heaven because they are too dead to notice.