In Marx’s view, ‘Man makes religion, religion does not make man’. However, members of society fail to recognize that religion is of their own making. They assign to the gods an independent power, a power to direct their actions and shape their destiny.
The more man invests in religion, the more he loses himself. In Marx’s words, ‘The more man puts into God, the less he retains of himself.’ In assigning his own powers to supernatural beings, man becomes alienated from himself.
Religion appears as an external force controlling man’s destiny whereas, in reality, it is man-made. Religion, though, is a reflection of a more fundamental source of alienation. It is essentially a projection of the social relationships involved in the process of production.
If man is to find himself and abolish the illusions of religions, he must ‘abandon a condition which requires illusions’. He must therefore eradicate the source of alienation in the economic infrastructure.