Even MORE thought provoking classes: Marx and religion

I'm regretting a bit that they don't offer a reflective journal assessment option for Law and Social Theory. It's given me lots to think about.

Today we were discussing Marx's conception of religion and 'the opium of the masses' (someone back in high school misquoted that and I always thought it was the 'opiate' of the masses...hmph! I was misinformed!!) It's all very interesting. Marx reckons that the whole concept of God is basically human beings projecting the very best of their characters out to some external nebulous (i.e. God). But what he argues is that instead of projecting the very values that we attribute to God outside of ourselves, we should instead concentrate on living out those values in our lives NOW, as opposed to concentrating on this fluffy deity we've created ourselves, and our rosy, heavenly after-life. At the foundation of this reasoning is the concept that humans have it in them to be all-loving, all-compassionate, all-good etc etc. And when we cast of the fetters of religion and God, only then can we be emancipated.

Firstly, I wonder very much how Marx reconciled his concept of human beings with what he saw with his eyes. Yes, some humans are capable of extreme kindness and goodness, but they are the exception to the rule. But for the most part, human beings are pretty icky, self-centered, issue-riddled constructs, which do icky, self-centered, issue-riddled things. Human nature hasn't changed over the millenia, and I really wonder where Marx's belief in humanity's intrinsic goodness comes from.

Secondly, there's that theme of being able to save ourselves again which I mentioned a few days back. The whole "opium of the masses" thing is kind of saying (not entirely sure about this) is that religion (i.e. this external projection) is merely a crutch and a cop out for not actually being all-loving, all-good etc.

Interesting huh? I disagree entirely, but it's still interesting! You've gotta have a huge intellect behind you to think of stuff like that!