Is Religion Really the Opium of the Masses?

August 24, 2025

In the Gospel of today we hear one of the disciples asking Jesus, “Lord, will only a few be saved?” This fear or concern of who will, and will not, be saved often seems like the central part of the teachings of many, perhaps all, religions, including Christianity. There is a great desire, even an obsession for some, to know what will happen to them after their death - will they gain salvation, will they go to heaven, will they attain moksha and so on and so forth. Sometimes it seems that it is on the basis of this desire that the whole of popular religion is based. And this fear that a person could be stuck in eternity without being saved, or in an unquenchable fire, or in endless cycles of rebirth, or whatever other horror we can imagine, is so powerful that we humans are eager to find some quick-fix methods that can help assure us of this after-life success, which in Christianity we call salvation. And we are sometimes so obsessed by these quick-fixes that it almost seems like we are drugged by religion, leading us to ask whether this was what Marx meant when he spoke of religion being the opium of the masses.

But why are we so concerned about salvation in the next world?  It would seem that this idea of salvation may have emerged so strongly because many of us experience that in the real world, justice and  goodness often does not seem to be ‘winning’, - and this militates strongly against our belief that Ultimate Reality is good and just. For the most part many, if not all of us, feel helpless to do anything to change things in our life - either because we are too poor, too weak or too small to do so in any significant way. And so we crave for some sort of control, something we can do, something that will ensure a good life, - if not in this life, then at least in the next life. And so, unfortunately, according to me at least, all religions willy-nilly feed into this desire for control. Catholics are encouraged to offer prayers specially prepared for the jubilee year, or to take advantage of indulgences, or sprinkle holy water or touch relics to ensure special graces/blessings that will lead to salvation, Muslims go on pilgrimages and fasts that many believe will help them reach heaven. Hindus bathe in the Ganga and go to Varanasi to die as they believe these things will help purify them and help them attain moksha. And so we begin to see and use religion to give us that sense of control over our future, over our lives.

But if that is the kind of religion we believe in, then Marx is right when he termed religion as the opium of the masses. This kind of religion, like opium,  lulls us into a false sense of safety by helping us experience a heady feeling of happiness and hope that doesn’t require us to do anything, except carry out these magical practices. As a result, this kind of religion allows us to excuse ourselves from feeling the need to stand up for the less fortunate, or to heed the call to give of ourselves to others, because we have come to believe that  if we carry out these prescribed religious rituals, our future is already assured. 

But if we understand that religion is not only about the ever after, but very much also about the here and now, then we will begin to realize that salvation is ultimately nothing else but a journey to become part of the larger whole, to become one with Ultimate Reality [God]. And if this is what ‘salvation’ is, then we will come to realize that all these religious rituals are just aids/means to living our lives in harmony with that Ultimate Reality, and are not magic formulas that will work irrespective of how we live our lives. It is because this salvation begins here in this life itself that we have Jesus telling the crowd, when Zachaeus announces the radical changes he was going to make in his life, “Today salvation has come to this house’. (Luke: 19 9)   
 
This kind of religion, this kind of salvation, requires us to change ourselves, through loving and forgiving our neighbour even when s/he hates us, through non-attachment to material possessions or fame, through continually trying to find the truth, no matter where it comes from, and so on.  It is an evolution, a painful one at that, and each time we develop into something really new and different - like the caterpillar becoming the chrysalis and then transitioning into the butterfly. And so we too transform into becoming good and just, not because of some reward in the after life, but because if Ultimate Reality is good and just, and we are part of that Reality, then doing good is just becoming true to our very selves.
 
And when we pursue this kind of a religion we create heaven within us (see ‘Is there a Heaven and a Hell ?’ - November 26, 2023), and one could even say that whether there is a next life or not, we are already saved.  

First Reading: Isaiah 66: 18-21

But I know their works and their thoughts. I am coming to gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and shall see my glory,  and I will set a sign among them. From them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Put, and Lud, to Meshech, Tubal, and Javan, to the coastlands far away that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory, and they shall declare my glory among the nations.  They shall bring all your kindred from all the nations as an offering to the Lord, on horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and on mules, and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring a grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord.  And I will also take some of them as priests and as Levites, says the Lord.

 

Second Reading: Hebrews 12: 5-7, 11-13

And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children—

“My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord
    or lose heart when you are punished by him,
for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves
    and chastises every child whom he accepts.”

Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children, for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline?  If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children.  Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live?  For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness.  Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees  and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

 

Gospel: Luke 13: 22-30

 

Jesus went through one town and village after another, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem.  Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few be saved?” He said to them,  “Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.  Once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then in reply he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’  Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’  But he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!’  There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out.  Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and take their places at the banquet in the kingdom of God.  Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”