Opium

Here are a few quotes from Karl Marx, written as parts of a critique of “Philosophy of Right,” written in 1820 by Georg Hegel:
• Man makes religion, religion does not make man.
• Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
• Man, who has found only the reflection of himself in the fantastic reality of heaven, where he sought a superman, will no longer feel disposed to find the mere appearance of himself, the non-man [Unmensch], where he seeks and must seek his true reality.

Oddly enough, all of that is pretty true, regarding religion. Religions have been invented by humans.

Our story, however, is that our God created heaven and earth, and placed humans in one with hope of being placed in the other. Our story is that our God wants to have fellowship with us, and has made provision for it to happen. Our relationships with Him are that fellowship. We are not suffering with mere religion, or, as Paul wrote, we would be the most miserable of all people (1 Corinthians 15:19).