Marx's Concept of Alienation and Christianity's Concept of Sin and Disordered Will - Essay Example

Marx's concept of alienation and Christianity's concept of sin and disordered will Different religions and social s or political parties describe different types of human problems. Christianity describes sin as the major human problem and belief in Jesus Christ as the solution whereas Buddhism believes suffering as the major human problem and the Noble Eight Fold Path as the solution. Karl Marx identified another type of human problem. He has put forward his famous theory of alienation in which he argues that separation or differentiation of things that belong together earlier as the major human problem.

In other words Marx argued that segregation of people with respect to class, caste, race, wealth, gender etc is the major problem prevailing in our society. He referred this segregation as alienation and defined it as the product of capitalism. This paper explains the relevance of “human problem” and compares Marx's concept of alienation and Christianity's concept of sin and disordered will. Even though the developments in science and technology brought immense changes or advancements in human life, still we do not know the secret behind our life and death.

Nobody knows from where we come and where we go after death. Religions try to explain life before and after death in conjunction with the concept of God whereas political parties and other social institutions stress the importance of current life and keeping silence over the life after death. Our inability to unveil the mysteries surrounding our life and death resulted in the development of different types of theories about human life or human problem. It is generally accepted by all that human is the combination of body and mind.

Mental phenomena are qualitative in nature and it differs reasonably from the bodily phenomena. In other words, it is possible to measure or visualize bodily phenomena whereas it is impossible to measure mental phenomena even though we can feel or experience it. Atheists treat body and mind as a single entity and in their opinion; either body or mind cannot survive independently. On the other hand, religions treat body and mind as two separate things and in their opinion mind or soul will be separated at the time of death from the body and it can survive even without a body.

Religions treat soul as the representation of God in human body and therefore it believes in the eternity of soul. Marx’s concept of alienation is based on his analysis of alienated labor. He sees that the worker is degraded to the most miserable commodity, i.e., the misery of the workers increases with the power and size of their production; the more the workers produce, the less they have to consume, thus the more values they create the more valueless and worthless they become. It is understandable that labor produces works of wonder for the rich, but nakedness for the worker.

It produces palaces, but only hovels for the worker; it produces beauty, but cripples the worker (Marx’s Concepts of Historical Materialism and Alienation) Marx in his alienation theory pointed towards the injustice prevailing in the society. In his opinion, the rich utilizes the efficiency and productivity of the working class to richer. At the same time the workers are becoming poorer even though they produce more. In other words, Marx argued that a huge gap existing in the society between the rich and poor and it should be reduced as much as possible.

In his opinion, when the gap between the rich and poor increases, the human problems may also increase. Marx never believed in life before birth or life after death. He has focused mainly on the present life rather than a future life. His arguments were centered round the human and he never advocated the concept of God or religion. He has witnessed religion as a narcotic drug which may prevent human from rational thinking. In his opinion, the concept of life after death is brought to this world in order to exploit the poor people further.

Christianity on the other hand believes that the life of human in this world is only a temporary one and a permanent or eternal life is waiting for the human after his death. Those who perform better things, or lived in accordance with the teachings of Jesus may get salvation or eternal life after their death whereas those who performed against the teachings of Jesus may get punishment after the death. Christians do believe that earth is a laboratory in which human is tested by God in order decide who is suitable for eternal life.

To conclude, Karl Marx stressed the importance of present life whereas Christianity stressed the importance of future life. Works Cited 1. “Marx’s Concepts of Historical Materialism and Alienation”. Web. 24 June 2011.