SOCI 300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Class Conflict, Proletariat, Invisible Hand
5 Jan 2017
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Important to note that marxism does not desire to remove the comfort that religion can give to people. What they want is to change the existing social structure/institutions/economic conditions that make religion a necessity: religion is a reaction to the realities of the world. It is an illusion that grants people comfort, hope and happiness. Marxism aims to change the material reality so people do not need to depend on an illusion: the abolition of religion is required so that people can achieve true happiness. People do not want to give up the illusions provided to them by religion and face the real world: marx saw religion as intertwined with class struggle. He believes that major religious conflicts in history were simply different manifestations of class struggle. Engels agreed with marx"s perspective, arguing that in capitalist cities, human beings experience the forces that they have created themselves as external to them.
