The reason there's confusion about that quote is it's always without context. "Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real sufferi

The reason there's confusion about that quote is it's always without context. "Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. 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" It's not so much that religion is meant to pacify, but that it does. It is soothing, and makes conditions which may be unbearable without it, bearable, preventing the people from attempting to change the underlying conditions which caused the suffering in the first place.