Although the exposition of Marx’s Early Writings was fairly
lengthy, in assessment we can be relatively brief. The topics
we discussed included religion; the philosophy of historical
materialism; alienation, including alienated labour; money
and credit; liberalism; and emancipation. For myself I find
Marx’s remarks on most of these issues full of insight. This is
not to say, of course, that I am ready to swallow them whole,
and considerable questions can be raised. First I shall point to
a few of the difficulties that I find in this part of Marx’s work.
Marx’s analysis of religion can be broken into four parts.
First, human beings create God in their own image (Feuerbach’s
thesis). Second, we do this to find solace from our
miseries on earth. Third, the cause of our misery is alienation
in our everyday lives. Fourth, only communist society can
overcome this alienation and thus transcend religion. Now,
one possible objection to all of this is that Marx is wrong and
traditional theology right: there is a God, who created us,
and ordered us to worship him. It is a constant source of
wonderment to me that intelligent,educated people canbring themselves to believe any of this, but we’ll let that pass.
We should just note that if traditional theology is right, Marx
took a wrong turn at the start.
Suppose, then, that Feuerbach’s thesis is true: human
beings invented God. Marx’s innovation is to attempt to
explain why it is true. Yet should we accept that religion has
its source in our misery, and, specifically, the misery of
alienation? One difficulty is that even in relatively affluent
societies religion continues to exist, even among the more
affluent classes. So at least at first sight it is hard to see
religion in all its manifestations as a solace. Of course, there
are several Marxist-style replies that could be made. First,
although some contemporary societies are relatively affluent
in material goods, they are still class divided and thus still
alienated. So we do all need consolation after all. Second,
and distinctly, the existence of religion in class-divided
societies is very useful in keeping the workers in check.
Distracted by thoughts of heaven, they are less likely to
protest about hell on earth. This connects with the theory of
ideology. Their social betters have every reason to perpetrate
this myth, for their own self-interest. As Engels puts it,
describing eighteenth-century England,