We should note three things here. First, Marx regards religion as a human creation with no transcendent status and no necessarily abiding significance. At its most positive, religion fills a psychological need: the pain and suffering that economic alienation causes are alleviated by the false hope of a life of eternal bliss hereafter, where all wrongs are righted and peace and justice prevail. Second, this not only meets the psychological needs of the workers but also works in the interests of the bosses and factory owners because it enables them to bear their present woes and not rise up in
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