1 Marx felt that religion is a social institution that is su

1 Marx felt that religion is a social institution that is supposed to support the status quo, which also reflects the economics of society. Marx thought that capitalism creates inequality and oppression, and that religion is \'used by oppressors to make people feel better about the distress they experience due to being poor and exploited. Briefly give a specific example of religion being used by an oppressor to make people feel better about being poor and exploited. (This example can come from any time in history, from any group wielding oppressive power.) -Briefly give a specific example of religion being used to better the status of those who are poor and exploited. (This example can come from any time in history, and can include any religion-affiliated social justice group, for example). 8 8

Solution

During the time of early european history lies a dark phase when the holy roman church emerged as a powerful institution of feudalism, it was headed by pope, the pure and has yielded more powers than the kings, sooner this power corrupted the entire institution, they practised evils like:-

Thus, they soon started using the holy religion in order to gain the political and materialistic advantages, they indeed forced the poor to live on the mercy of god, called there poverty as a fate of god, instead of raising there socio economic status, they left them in the chains of hunger.

During the time of renaissance and reformation, which emerged as a movement to visit old scriptures and roman past, soon turned into a movement of new ideas, art, religion and philosophy. This phase focussed on humanity instead of divinity, they emphasised on the values of humanism and used the religion to teach, to educate and to raise the standard of life of the poors, philosphers like da vinci through his paintings shifted the focus of church from heaven/hell to humanity, machiavelli tought emphazised on the superiority of state over religion etc, thus reforming the entire religious system in order to bring the positive change in the life of the people.