Has been criticized by many. For Marx, religion serves capitalist interests and is a tool used by wealthy elites to control and oppress the working class. Like the French philosopher Auguste Comte, foe whom religious belief is an infantile state Of REASON, Marx believes in society progressing scientifically toward secularism. However, Marx is more critical of religion as a reflection of society, rather than as a set of beliefs. His goal is to liberate the working class from the oppression of capitalism, and he argues that the ideas of the ruling class are those dominating society – and one of the apparatuses transmitting those ideas is Church