Marx and Nietzsche’s Critique of Religion: Reflections on the Rise of Secularism

Abstract

This article discusses Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche’s critique of religion and its relevance to the rise of secularism. Marx reduced religion to the realm of the social, material and ideological. Nietzsche, on the other hand, provided historical and psychological explanations of religion. These discourses about religion shattered the spiritual and metaphysical foundation of religion as well as of religious truths. The ideas of Marx and Nietzsche contributed a lot to secularism that placed religion to the private sphere and recognized that all religions are equal.
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