The Opiate of the People

Czeslaw Milosz, the Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet, wrote the remarkable essay "The Discreet Charms of Nihilism." In it he remembers how Marx had called religion "the opiate of the people" because the promise of an afterlife (Marx said) led the poor and the working class to put up with unjust social conditions. But, Milosz continued:

"And now we are witnessing a transformation. A true opium of the people is a belief in nothingness after death - the huge solace of thinking that our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murders are not going to be judged... [but] all religions recognize that our deeds are imperishable."

- taken from "The Reason for God" by Timothy Keller, pg. 78