Marx once wrote, “Religion is the opiate of the people.” If only our comrade was alive and kicking today to witness the existential crises religion now faces. Religion as a concept has been kicked around, smothered, bent and broken and now faces its biggest, unprecedented opposition. This opposition is widely considered to be science and that perception has been ruthlessly romanticized (as has the notion of atheism), but is in fact not.
Politics is the single largest threat religion faces today.
The 18th Century saw the ‘Philosophical Enlightenment’ come to the forefront of society. The focus shifted away from the collective and to the individual. The need for rights rode a wave of popularity and was soon a pre-requisite for society. The post-Renaissance period saw momentous scientific development, with Europe being at the heart of this unprecedented progress. The Industrial Revolution saw the advent of mass production and the mechanization of all possible articles – living or non-living. The notion of monarchies began to fade away; apparently people did not appreciate that only a certain few people controlled a large number of others. The intricate foundation for modern society was fabricated from these fragmented, seemingly unrelated events.
Atypical Rationale 