awalbert, I agree mostly with waht you say, however I think you are actually taking Marx's quote about religion slightly out of context (let alone the fact that it is slightly misquoted, but whatever). Marx was referring to his concepts that social institutions, including religion were merely aspects of social control imposed on a proletariat by a faltering bouguoise class to retain the dwindling power. A way of justifying to the workers why they had to put up with injustices. Sort of a - if you put up with it now, you'll be rewarded in teh afterlife. Why do we have religion? Depending on what school of thought you associate with, you may believe that it is a way of explaining things we just don't understand. I look at it partially as that, but in other ways as well. It forms a basis for ideology for people to identify with. A relatively simple basis, with simple ideas and beliefs to allow people to group together witl simialr interests and ideas. It lets people identify with their peers, as well as explain things that are otherwise unexplainable. You have these systems of ideas for people to associate under to explain the natural world. Many argue that with teh advent of more scientific knowledge, we are often losing the religious basis for our understanding of the world. Some might even argue that science is the new religion //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif
