Madam, – In William Reville’s excellent article “Statistics challenge ‘demise’ of religion” (Science Today, March 18th), he quoted Karl Marx as describing religion as “the opium of the people”.
This statement echoes a common attribute to Marx, which is contrary to what Marx actually wrote. In his marvellous biography of Marx, Francis Wheen provides a full statement of Marx's actual statement, which is also repeated in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, as "Religious suffering is at one and the same time the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of the heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people".
In Francis Wheen’s iconic biography, as well as the writings of Marx’s co-author Friedrich Engels, one can find several statements which are more favourable to religion, although both Marx and Engels were declared atheists; they recognised religious belief as being of importance to people at times of distress, such as the loss of family members.
Just for once let us ascribe the full quotation which continues to be used as an attempt to discredit Marx by people and organisations whose purpose is to protect the capitalist system. – Yours, etc,