Karl Marx explains his phrase "Religion is the opium of the people" (1867)

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]He wrote that religion is I believe the phrase is the opium of the people.

[00:00:06]That is a provocative charge. It is not an insult to the suffering. It is a diagnosis.

[00:00:13]Opium in its time was a medicine for pain. It relieved what could not otherwise be relieved. Religion in conditions of real misery offers consolation, warmth, the illusion of a heart in a heartless world. I understand its appeal. I do not mock those who take comfort in it. But what concerns me is that religion in its social function so often tells the poor man, "Your suffering is ordained. Your station is God's will. Endure in this life and be rewarded in the next." This is a message enormously convenient for those at the top of society who have no wish to see anything change. Law, morality, religion, these have all too often served as so many bourgeois prejudices behind which lurk bourgeois interests.

[00:01:03]The criticism of religion is the beginning of all criticism because it asks us to look at the actual conditions of human life rather than seeking consolation in their transfiguration.