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Why did Marx call religion the opium of the people?

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ideology Girolamo Savonarola, painting by Fra Bartolomeo; in the Museo di San Marco, Florence.

Karl Marx described religion as the "opium of the people" because he viewed it as a form of ideological alienation that provides an illusory justification for the suffering caused by capitalist society.1

In Marx’s analysis, humanity is alienated through labour and the division of society into antagonistic classes. Because individuals in this system are deprived of their true potential and freedom, they project their need for liberation into a transcendental or heavenly sphere. Religion acts as a sedative, obscuring the material causes of this alienation and offering a distorted representation of the world.12

Marx believed that religion is a product of human consciousness—a reflection of a person who has not yet conquered themselves or has lost themselves within a world of private property. Consequently, he argued that religion would only disappear when the underlying social and economic conditions that necessitate such illusions are fundamentally changed through the creation of a classless society.12