Marx for Beginners(Jeff Barnard)

In this book, it talks about the life of Karl Marx and the various things that came up during his journey to becoming a philosopher. One such thing was religion and the idea that God was an idea and not real as established religion had preached. Marx and other philosophers supported the idea that God wasn’t in heaven but was on earth and that we as a people created God. Many of the people who believed this were shunned by their communities for believing in such things that originated from the philosopher Frederick Hegel. Personally, I’m not sure where I lie on the issue because on the hand, I do believe in a higher power, but on the other, I’m not so sure it’s the one that religion is talking about.

After he died in 1883 his words became famous throughout the entire world and his influence fueled many social movements. It all started in 1917 when Lenin conquered Russia and the rise of Marxism followed soon after. In this, it is stated the Marx believes that the idea of God began after the extinction of the dinosaurs and that caveman thought it was a higher being that did this and kept them alive. This would the lead to people exploiting the “divinity” of these events and made themselves “delegates” of his powers. I don’t think that this is completely true because there were genuine people that helped other people through what they believed like feeding the poor. I think because there was no solid idea of god throughout history, it left openings for people to get the greedy hands into for power over people.

In conclusion, Marx was a poor man with a unique perspective on God through his various studies of religion and philosophers. Some preached that God wasn’t some higher being but something that man created to give themselves something to believe in and live by. Others used Marx’s words as an influence as they took power in various parts of the world such as Russia and China. I think that Marx was a good idea about the origin of how religion got started but not necessarily the relation of people to God. I say this because you can’t really have a generic idea about god because we do not know if it is true and could be sending out the wrong message that if you don’t go to church you don’t believe in god. In the end, all that matters is what we as individuals believe and not what a community believes.