Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: > > > I thought that Marx's formula was that, although religion is the sigh > of the oppressed, the development of capitalism tends to secularize > life. I believe he was too simplistic about the correlation between > capitalist development and secularization.
Capitalism _has_ secularized life, most visibly in the social being of "fundamentalists" both east and west, all of which groups are far more deeply involved in purely secular concerns than either Islam or Christianity in the past. (Of course it is difficult to think of a more secular institution than the Roman Church in the Renaissance.) As has been often pointed out, what Marx _didn't_ recognize was the rise of imperialism. He saw that potential but thought socialist revolution in the core capitalist nations would come first. The Methodist Church may well split over the issue of gay marriage (according to a friend who is a Methodist minister). I think that should be seen as a secular conflict expressed in religious terms. The imposition of capitalism on Ireland in the late 16th century also wore religius garb. Carrol
