Karl Marx viewed religion not as an independent force, but as a social product deeply intertwined with economic structures and class struggle, serving to legitimize inequality and alienate the oppressed.
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good afternoon and welcome to cc gurukul
lecture in continuation with the series
on sociology of religion in today's
lecture i am going to discuss a very
important thinker that's karl marx most
of us who have studied sociology are
familiar with karl marx as he is one of
the founding figures in sociology
today we are going to discuss karl marx
concept on or his understanding on
religion but before we understand what
karl marx talks about religion we need
to understand who was karl marx and
specifically his method approach to
study society and to begin with we'll see
see
that karl marx was a german philosopher
and he made an attempt to understand
religion from a scientific objective
perspective if we keep in mind the
context in which karl marx was writing
it was a time when sociology was being
designed as a science of society that is
people were making attempt to understand
society from a scientific perspective
what is known in sociology as positivist
school of positivism so in that
perspective karl marx was making an
attempt to understand society and we see
that nowhere is he specifically talking
about religion he's known for his theory
of class struggle for the understanding
of capitalism alienation but he is not
specifically addressing religion as such
but then through his understanding of
society because he's trying to
problematize understanding of society he
makes reference to what is religion and
we'll see in the course of the
discussion that he is putting religion
within the context of class struggle
between how people from the
class which does not have property who
don't own property uh take on religion
as a kind of an illusion for them it is
a means of coming out of the class
structure and therefore it is very
important to first understand mark's
theory of class struggle marx theory of
class analysis and we'll kind of
understand that when we look into karl
marx or we try to understand karl marx
it what comes into mind is his
understanding of materialism or and in
that context he will put religion as an
ex expression of material realities now
what does it mean when we talk about
materialism it says something which has
a value something which can is kind of
has an exchange value and therefore he
will be putting an understanding of
religion within the broader context of
economic determinism or what we call as materialistic
materialistic
or historical materialism in literature
or text on karl marx we get to unders
here a lot of terms dialectical
materialism historical materialism so
these are where in which he is trying to
understand the structures of society
from an economic perspective
he tries to
reduce most of the understanding of what
the structure of a society is
dependent on the relations of modes of
production and that is materialistic
understanding so when we try to
understand religion he would be actually
looking into the problems of society and
problems of society in terms of the
inequality the difference oppression in
terms of exploitation
or also within the larger uh
discourse on the shift of social uh
society due to industrialization
urbanization towards an alienated
society towards a fetish society so we
will put his understanding of religion
and keep in mind his larger debates of
class struggle and dialectical
materialism so we kind of quickly look
into his theory of class struggle we
know that karl marx looked into history
as a class struggle and what was the
struggle around the club struggle was
around the material production
when he talks about material production
basically he wants to say that there is
a means of production that is through
which you can produce or manufacture and
what are the means of production it
could be a land it could be ownership of
factory it could it could be the modes
of production so one there is a class
struggle between those who have
ownership of the mozart production
versus those who are denied any kind of
access and in in this context he will
say that as society moves it is an
indication of change in the ownership of
mozart production so history is a
representation of the struggle over the
material production and history in in
according to karl marx is basically
based on material economic and social
conditions for him the social condition
of individuals in a society at a
particular point of history is the
outcome of his economic conditions so if
you are say in a position to own owner
property then your social status in
society is better because you have a
bargaining power and you can bargain
whereas those who do not have any access
to property their social status is kind
of at the margin because they cannot
kind of determine what price should they
get for their labor he
he
marx was looking into
most of the time referring to the
european history and he says that all
developing society kind of passes
through this phase and as the modes of
production or the relations of material
production changes there is a social
change that kind of takes place
so materialism according to karl marx
and this is in the words of marx is the
sum total of the natural environment and
this includes all of inorganic nature
the organic world social life and human
consciousness so he is the kind of not
making any kind of a distinction between
economy so social and your
capacity to kind of be conscious about
your status in society so they are kind
of related and the base for him if we
kind of look into his theory he says the
base is the economy and on the base we
can kind of place the culture so the
moment the base changes it would
automatically lead to change in the
social and cultural element so dialectic
is a term which he borrowed from hegel
and dialectical he's kind of interested in
in
dialectical means two way so it kind of
refers to him human conditions uh
history of human life being conditioned
by material economic conditions so just as
as
change is kind of a part of society if uh
uh
history when we go to history it talks
about the stages of the development of
society so when we try to understand
from a dialectical materialism then it
implies that the material conditions in
the society have undergone change which
has resulted a change in the course of
the history and therefore his own his
kind of focus or main motive was to
understand human behavior and by
understanding human behavior he's trying
to make reference to history and economy
and in this discourse of trying to
understand the evolution of
the historical stages from
say capitalism to communism
he is trying to understand the functions
of religion or what role religion plays
in different stages of history
so therefore when we look into his
economic theory for which he is more
well read and more recognized we see
that he kind of creates a structure
which in most of the textbook would be
represented as a triangle and i just
said that the base of the triangle would
be the material
sources or material conditions and this
would include division of labor class
struggle and on this on top of the base
if you move towards the
edge of the triangle is based the social institution
institution
so which kind of it is in uh
reflection that whatever change takes
place they will be reflected on the apex
and therefore economic conditions led to
change in the social conditions so
institutions which are at the superstructure
superstructure
are built upon the base of economy
totally dependent on material and
economic realities
all of these institutions which is kind
of social and cultural which is a part
of everyday life like marriage church
government art etc
can be understood when we understand the
relations to economic forces and as i've
already said the economic forces is
basically the relations to the means of production
production
and in a very common sensical world it
refers to the relations between those
who have ownership and this is the
capitalist class versus those who are
denied any kind of
and when we look into his theory of
class struggle it refers to this class
struggle between the bougie and the
proletariat so marx observed that
there's a parallel between religious and
socio-economic activity so for him it
was the change in economic conditions
that would bring about a change in the
religious conditions so the role of
religion during capitalism would be
entirely different from what it would be
during communism
in later lectures we will talk about
weber and we see how weber would turn
marx upside down for weber it would be
the social cultural uh dimension or
structure that would lead to change in
the economic conditions and for that is
the classical work of weber the
protestant ethic and spirit of
capitalism is uh is the most important
work that we refer to in
sociology opposed to karl marx weber
would suggest that it was the protestant
ethic that is religion or part of the
cultural life that led to the
development of capitalism so we will
discuss more about weber in the next
lecture but today let's try to
understand marks so for marx any kind of
change in the culture is the outcome of
the change in the relations to modes of
productions and in that context marx saw
religion as a social product
emerging out of social relations so and
the relations here is basically it was
to do with the ownership of property but
was also a social relation because it
decided the relation between the
proletariat and the boosters so the
out of this relation between the two
class religion kind of emerges religion
did not exist all by itself independent
of social and economic forces
and later on kind of he kind of looks
into from a conflict perspective and
that's what karl marx's theory is kind
of more put into
sociology books as conflict theorists is
to look into how religion becomes a
means to control the mass the mars are
the ones who do not have access to the
capitalist modes of production and it
also becomes an instrument in
legitimizing injustice whereas the
injustice the injustice is when we go
into karl marx economic theory where the
surplus value or from any kind of a
manufacturing or production is
appropriated by the upper class and therefore
therefore
those who are at the are not being
sufficiently compensated for the labor
that they have put into it so there is
an element of inequality or injustice
and religion comes in here as an
instrument of justifying or kind of
legitimizing that injustice is coming
out of the class differences so it was
during the renaissance and the
reformation the references and
reformation was a period when there was
a kind of lot of discussions or debates
discussed on kind of uh purifying
religion specifically in the western
context the christianity and this was a
time when the church and the
state got separated and there was the
idea that church and state had two
different kind of domain to function uh
prior to that it was the church which
was regulating the political
role of the
society as well so during the
reformation of post-reformation religion
started being questioned the role of
religion becoming started being
questioned and that is where we will see
that we can put in uh mark's theory of
understanding religion as an opium of
the masses
so when we look into his materialistic perspective
perspective
the approach that he takes on to
understand religion is from a
materialistic perspective he focused on
the political aspect of religion
and use or abuse as a means of moral and
intellectual repression
so it's kind of fur
when he's kind of will say that it is
something which the
working class kind of take recalls to it
then it kind of gives them a
belief or a feeling that what is
happening to them in terms of not being
given the required wage or value is
something which is justified or
something which is okay and then you can
kind of pray or you can worship and kind
of think of improving the conditions
according to marx the discussion of
labor in capitalist society the
development of the structure of market
and the consequent exploitation of labor
by subjugating humans to the product of
their own labor
led to the condition of alienation of
human so when we go into his work of capitalism
capitalism
capitalism and labor theory we'll see he
was basically trying to understand the
problems that was emerging because of
this change of society and where was the
change taking place the change was
by and large taking place in the
economic domain it was a shift from a con
con
kind of a society where there was a kind
of collective sharing there was
subsistence economy there was no concept
of the
factory there was no concept of market
it was con production and consumption
was happening within the family and it
was a family labor which was involved as
soon as factories were set up and
markets came in which was kind of the
beginning of the capitalist economy you
therefore there was a kind of a relation
between those who had ownership of these
and the others who were putting in their
labor and those who were laboring or the
working class would deny the
true value of the labor that they
were doing and when we go into detail we
see he talks about alienation and
alienation from your own product
alienation from your own community and
alienation from the process of
production which kind of ultimately
alienates the working class from the
society as such
humans who were unable to regulate their
own world turned to religion so since
they could not do much within the working
working
work area that is the factory where they
had no say in the what kind of product
was being produced what was the process
of production they had kind of very
limited relations between the co-workers
so therefore these workers who were
denied any kind of interaction
or any kind of
position in the factory turned to
religion and that is where he's looking
into religion as a product of class
struggle so alienating work working
class those who were kind of uh not
figuring out
out what economic process was for them
turned to religion and this was kind of
precisely shifted focus from a more
materialistic pragmatic critique of religion
religion
religion serves to mystify the real
relation between men and inanimate object
object
according to marx nature is impersonal
force which imposes limited limitations
on man's capacity to act but nature can
be understood scientifically and
manipulated rationally via technology
and which kind of gives more potential
for the benefit of mankind so it is kind
of he says that
when there was everybody was had equal
say it was all kind of natural
production and there was no technology
then the relations between human beings
were more or less egalitarian there was
a kind of a
more in terms of collective living as
soon as technology comes in it starts
manipulating human relations or the
relations between man and men and
inequality kinds of creeps in
through religion human projects personal
characteristics onto nature so therefore
when the technology is kind of creating
an unequal
unjust relation between individuals then
the people would take recalls to nature
and nature in the sense here would be
kind of uh
relying more on supernatural forces in
terms of trying to invent god or trying
to think about a superpower or
say a deity or any any powerful
person who could bring about a change in
this situation so that is why he's kind
of critiquing his giving us a critique
of religion and that he says that see
there is a kind of a relation between
the capitalist and non-capitalist and
these the working class or those who do
not have any kind of ownership are
unable to bring about control their
situation so what ultimately comes is
that they start believing in someone who
would have control over the
and bring about a change in this and
that is why they can start kind of
believing and manipulating nature to
appeal gods and deities through rituals
and sacrifices
for marx religion is one of those
institutions which are dependent upon
the material and economic realities in a
given society why dependent on the real
given society because until and unless
such a relations of inequality and
appropriation alienation did not take
place religion would have no space so
only when capitalism or economic
exploitation alienation started
happening that people took recalls to
religion they started kind of
believing that there would be some hope
that things would bring about come about
uh there would be some change so it has
no independent history instead the
creature of productive forces
marx wrote in one of his work that the
religion world is but the reflex of the
real world what does it mean here that
what is taking place in terms of the
material reality so if there was
equality if there was a collective
production and everybody was had an
equal share if there was no
appropriation of surplus value then
religion as such would have not kind of
existed or would have not been able to
kind of become prominent but it kind of
when we see that there is some an
institution called religion on which a
population is dependent it implies that
sat there is some problem in that society
society
and therefore religion is reflecting the
problem that the society is undergoing
according to marx religion can only be
understood in relation to other social
system and the economic structure of
society and this is why his theory is
kind of considered as a materialistic
perspective on religion
the most common statement or very uh we
can say a popular statement that most of
the students of sociology have heard it
in their
school or college day is the phrase
religion as the opium of the people this
is a statement that marx wrote in one of
his work and to state it directly from
his work he writes religion is the sigh
of the oppressed creature the sentiment
of the heartless world and the soul of
soulless condition
it is the opium of the people what does
it imply like it is kind of an addiction
it is kind of an uh say uh like when we
kind of uh are under certain kind of drug
drug
we kind of tend to
be away from the reality we go into a
different illusionary world which is
different from the reality so he's
comparing it he's saying that when we
quote take recourse to religion it helps us
us
kind of reduce the suffering of the
feeling of the suffering of oppression
of appropriation and kind of people are
then feeling more comfortable so but
keep in mind that he's not calling it as
a disease religion is not the disease it
is just a symptom of any kind of ailment
in the society so it is simp
and what is the symptom that he is high
uh hinting at the symptom is inequality
the symptom is the relation between
those who have extra and excess and
appropriate and the others who are
denied the basic conditions of life so
that is this uh symptoms of oppression
this some symptom that some
people are being appropriated they are
being oppressed and religion helps them
to feel better helps them to come out of
the distress and kind of not experience
all the kind of
ailment that is part of the society and
therefore we say religion is illusion
religion for god as a human creation and
not the other way around it is
deities god superpower whatever term we
use it's something which has been
created by society themselves in order
to come out of a situation which is kind of
of
alienating and ex
ex
misery full of misery so religion and
the capitalist mode of productions both
were the cause of man's alienation
so once you kind of get uh addicted to
this kind of a feeling you get again
alienated from the society
and you start kind of living into a
different world that is why he is saying
that religion and capitalism both leads
to alienation
so other dominant ideology the idea of
ruling class
is the bourgeois capitalism on the other
hand protected human-like values to the
product of human labor and alienating
man's labor but then he will be kind of
if we go into in terms of summarizing
what marx was saying he was saying that
the function of religion is to prevent
people making demands for social change
by dulling pain of oppression so once
you're not even about you're not going
to become conscious about it you're not
going to feel the uh
appropriation you're not going to feel the
the
brunt of the inequality then you're not
going to take any conscious effect so
that is a negative kind of a thing that
you will kind of
maintain status quo it will not lead to
religious change so if you were to bring
about a change then you have to kind of
become conscious what marx calls as
class conscious and only when class
consciousness would be there there would
be a kind of a struggle between the
ruling class and the rule and therefore
it would kind of bring about an end of
the class so religion strips humans of
qualities assigns them to supernatural
being and other kind of uh
so it can be said that religion
according to karl marx was a means to
justify social order and people's
position it can be said there's a lot of
critique who'd say that religion was
then kind of
supporting the growth of capitalism and
the objective truth that proletariat
would suffer deprivation and because of
exploitation so this is how we put into
mark's theory of religion a
materialistic perspective of religion in
order to understand the problems of
society when capitalism was
an economic order so that is the theory
of karl marx and with this i come to an
end of this lecture thank you [Music]
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