Religion at the time of the Communist Manifesto Essay

With the development of cities the working class ended up living in low income slums. Friedrich Engels stated in The Condition of the Working Class in England, “Every great town had one or more slums areas into which the working class are packed.” (Document 5) The slums then lead to poorer living conditions such as infected water and poor ventilation, which effected the life span of the people. Living with the poor condition meant that they were prone to get sick. As Edwin Chadwich pointed out in his report, “That the annual loss of life from filth and bad ventilation are greater than the loss from death or wounds in any wars in which the country has been engaged in modern times” (Document 6) In addition to these struggles, Karl Marx from the Communist Manifesto said, “Modern industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist.” (Document 10) This quote shows that this is another way the poor is being controlled by the rich and that someday there will be a classless

Though Marx and Kuyper agreed on the need to change the inequality between the different classes, their views regarding religion differed. Marx thought

Althusser recognised that religion also plays a crucial role in communicating ruling class ideology to the masses. Relating back to Marx’s (1844) description of religion as ‘the opium of the people’. Acknowledging that the teachings of the church are imposed by the ruling class to allow for false consciousness as the church teaches the working-classes to comply with capitalism and provides measures to cope with hardship. Nonetheless, (Giddens, 1971. P: 7) claimed ‘the abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness’. However, ideology is necessary for social life. Regardless if a society has a class system the function of ideology allows for social cohesion (Rancière, 2011).

He chose to view religion as a negative thing unlike Durkheim who viewed it in a positive way. Marx believed that “humanity makes religion; religion does not make humanity.” (Kessler. A, 2001). Karl Marx states that opium and religion can be an effect on human suffering by removing the incentive to do whatever is necessary to overcome it. Hamilton points out that “religion offers compensation for the hardship of this life in some future life, but it makes such compensation conditional upon acceptance of the injustices of this life.” Religion, to Marx, does not have the power to lead to social change. (Kessler. A, 2001). Max Webber attempted to demonstrate that religious beliefs were not mechanically connected to the economic structure of society, it shapes individuals behavior and actions in everyday life. Overall, it can be seen that the three main sociology writers differ greatly when it comes to ideas regarding religion.

Karl Marx said what about religion? Why might this be significant? Karl said religion is important, people need something to believe

This essay will be arguing that Marx and Burke held heavily contrasted views in regards to the role of religion in political. The topic of religion in politics has been highly debated throughout the ages, and the viewpoints held by these two scholars is meant to exemplify the struggle of opposing political ideologies. Marx believed that religion should be abolished and entirely separated from the state, and Burke believed that church and state should remain united in governance. To support this argument the use of their books the Reflection of the Revolution in France and the Marx-Engels Reader will be referenced to provide evidence.

Likewise, “many of the old workers had been thrown out of employment,”3 and these numbers only grew into the year of 1848. In a way Marx talks about this problem in the Communist Manifesto. In this document, Marx introduced his idea to incorporate socialism into the government before communism. This is mainly because socialism “would prepare the way by nationalizing the ‘means of production’ and putting them under the control of those he viewed as the sole producers of wealth: the workers.”4 This would take the control out of the hands of the wealthy and it would be given to those people that had been the poorest in the previous years. His goal was to get the common people to have a changed view of work once they started to be in charge of the producing of goods. This way, there would be no rich and no poor, only economic equality would result.

For Karl Marx, the changes in religion ultimately reflect the changes happening in society, because the religious world is just a reflection of the real world. If this is the case here, the use of technology in a religious setting would make sense, as our technological world is ever expanding and will further benefit the people at the top of religious hierarchies. In terms of online for-profit churches, Marx might argue that the market is driving the religious realm to cater to technological advances. Marx states in The Communist Manifesto, “The feudal system of industry…now no longer sufficed for the growing wants of the new markets”, meaning that longstanding religious traditions, such as confession and synagogue teachings before Bar/Bat

While both Locke and Marx believed that religion should be held separate from politics, diversion in ideology can be seen through the fact that Locke felt that religious life should be privatized, while Marx believed that religion becomes superfluous, and therefore unnecessary in a society in which power is appropriated to all of its masses. Locke’s “Letter Concerning Toleration” and Marx’s “Manifesto of the Communist Party” showcase the dynamic, oft-conflicting nature of power and control that the institution of formalized religion and politics have imparted on human consciousness, with Locke and Marx proving similar in their convictions that politics should be distinctly maintained, though differing on their stance on the privatization of

What Marx puts forward is that religion does not manifest a person’s true awareness. Marx sees religion as a distraction from misery. Religion, as Marx describes, is something you do to help your mind think of something else; religion is temporary

The class system caused many problems with the lower class. Numerous people were stuck in the lower class. The wealthy had access to

The work of Emmanuel Kant as he discussed enlightenment and reason married with the turbulence of politics compounded the crises of faith. Hegel however, maintained his dogmatic approach that religion and philosophy had a duality in that, they were about discovering God. Marx became cynical of the German government and Hegel’s philosophy agreeing with the writings of Feuerbach which criticised the writings of Hegel. In the German Ideology Marx set out his opposition to the work of Hegel. The Young Hegelians believe that in order for man to move forward there needed to be a change in mind set, however, Marx argues that basic needs of life are to be attended to first before this process of thinking. Marx writing alludes to how the people should rise against the thoughts of the ruling classes as they falsely attribute the exploitative relationship as a result of the will of God rather than the will of the ruling classes. The elite have the ideas of how society should run and religion is firmly within the ruling strata. He condemns the division of labour as the reason that man does not have the ability to own property which is in opposition of Hegel’s stance. (Marx and Engels as cited in Calhoun et al. 2007) Marx preferred critical philosophy and support for the people in poverty and under Feuerbach’s influence he felt that to

Families sullenly trudge back to their tenements, back to the tight, unsanitary confines of their lives. After 16 hours of hard work, they try to focus on the few dimes in their pockets, yet the thought of hunger echoes louder than the clink of coins. For the working poor, the Industrial Revolution was a curse. This is because the reforms that were eventually introduced to help develop cities into more sanitary and safe places left the poor worse off and the Industrial Revolution widened the wealth gap between social classes. Historical implications of the time period also support the idea that the Industrial Revolution was a curse for the working poor.

Prior to the Revolution, people lived in rural areas, agriculture was the primary source for income, and the class system started with the aristocrats at the top, traders in the middle and the peasants and serfs at the bottom. All of these gradually changed throughout the course of the industrialization. “The new patterns of work in large factories transformed the rhythm of labor and the texture of urban life, and cities grew rapidly with the influx of migrants from the countryside and from other regions of the world.” The middle class was also changing, Factory owners were now added to the middle class, and some of them even grew to be so prosperous that they would become society’s leaders. The

Karl Marx’s life was guided by the principle that social scientists should try to change the world rather than merely study it. His compassion towards individuals in need was obvious through his studies. The idea of class conflict, developed by Marx, was the ongoing struggle between the bourgeoisie (owners) and the proletariat (working) classes. The two would clash and the proletariats would overtake the bourgeoisie and