Religion and Oppression

Marx identifies two aspects of the role of religion:

1. It ‘cushions oppression’, by making people feel better about their oppressed situation.
2. It acts as an ‘instrument of oppression’, by keeping people ‘in their place’.

Read the section on Marx (pages 12 to 13), including the example of the caste system, and find five phrases to illustrate the two aspects of religion that Marx identifies.