Who is Carl Marx and what did he mean by "Religion is the opiate of the masses"?

Marx’s relationship with and ideas about religion are more complex than most realize. Marx’s analysis of religion has flaws, but despite them his perspective is worth taking seriously. Specifically, he argues that religion is not so much an independent “thing” in society but, rather, a reflection or creation of other, more fundamental “things” like economic relationships.

That’s not the only way of looking at religion, but it can provide some interesting illumination on the social roles that religion plays. Karl marx was a revolutionary communist ,theorist, philosopher,sociologist ,historian .

I think that Marx's reputation suffered a lot because Stalin and Lenin leaned on many of his theories thus making it repulsive to average person who doesn't want to be associated with communism. These exact words mean that religion serves the poor uneducated masses of hardworking simple man as a source of hope. There was no hope for hungry hardworking abused by system (feudal or during an industrial revolution and thereafter) people.

Rich had everything and poor had nothing. Religion was a salve for their souls, they could look forward to a reward in the afterlife.

Well I must say that you both had great answers to this question. Agreed.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.