The Opiate of The Masses

We all at one time or another have heard the false statement that communists believe religion is the "opiate of the masses". This idea came from a piece written by
Karl Marx, but it has been taken widely out of context. To put it back into the true context and meaning, we must first evaluate the time period in which Marx lived. Comrade Marx spent his life living in the 19th century, during the time of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. During this time, medical technology was quite behind (yes, I can hear you saying "Thank you, Captain Obvious" from here). It was during this time that opium was prescribed by doctors as a pain killer and a way to treat cholera and malaria (even today opium is used as an ingredient in morphine). Second, we must think about some of the things that opium does to people. Being an hallucinogenic drug, opium causes you to see things and have vivid fantasies while being intoxicated. Comrade Marx felt that religion had the same effect on people. He observed that in times of need or hardship, people would reach for their rosary and say a prayer. From this, one is able to conclude that people use religion as a way to pacify themselves and to keep themselves from feeling the pain of everyday life; whether it's the death of a loved one, or struggling from the economic oppression they face under capitalism. Then, during this process of being religious, people believe in stories like the world once flooded and one man was able to build a boat large enough to house two of EVERY animal species (with the exclusion of fish, I assume). Next, we must analyze why religion was started in the first place. In the very beginning of human history, man observed several natural phenonomenon that made him think. Where does that bright yellow thing in the sky go at the end of the day? What's with that weird white thing that you can only see parts of sometime? Why does water just fall out of the sky? It then became clear that he needed to explain this. So, he created myths about powerful beings who controlled the lives of everyday people. These myths would later be known as religion. Today, as scientists begin to find out more and more about the universe, people will begin to turn away from the stories they learned from practicing religion. Though there are still a few stubborn people who wish to live in the past, and disregard scientific fact, religion will one day fade away as an idea of another time. As you no longer see people today sacrificing people to the Gods in order to insure that the sun will come up the next day, there will once be a day where people don't say that the earth was created only a few thousand years ago by a supreme being. Instead, the population will become more agnostic, or deist, or perhaps even atheist. Will this future that lacks spirituality be a brighter tomorrow? That question can only be answered after the passing of a few more centuries.