"I don't want to send our son to church to be brain-washed like those Stoddard kids!" said our atheist friend to his wife. He grew up in East Germany and we had been church-planting in the former East for a few years by then. At first, I was offended that he would view the kids' program at our church as brainwashing. But then, I couldn't forget that he was probably taught Marx's view of religion throughout his life. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions. Karl Marx , Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right 1. Are our brains really free? According to Marx, if people were to truly think for themselves, they...
A pessimist's pursuit of joy