Opium of the people
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"Opium of the people" or "opium of the masses" is a dictum used in reference to religion, derived from a frequently paraphrased partial statement of German revolutionary and critic of political econom
Karl Marx
Vale of tears
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"Vale of tears" or "Valley of tears" is a Christian phrase referring to the tribulations of life that Christian doctrine says are left behind only when one leaves the world and enters Heaven. The phra
Opium of the people
…condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo. Marx used the phrase to make a structural-functionalist argument about religion, and particularly about organized religion…
Gustave Doré, The Valley of Tears