Question 26

[mcat_premed3832]

Actually, a communist country with no religious freedom is essentially an areligious society. It's not that they are restricted to a particular religion, rather, the great majority of the population follow no religion at all.

[jellywing_2058]

No this question does not require extra knowledge:

First, the question reads “According to the passage, which of the following statements, if true, is NOT consistent with Marx's view on how religion is generally practiced?” Therefore you do not need to know if the statements make sense with theory.

Second, answer choice C says “In communist countries with no religious freedoms, the dominating classes may create an illusionary happiness for the underclass.”

You do not need to know how religion works in a communist society. The answer choice tells you that there is no religious freedom, therefore forget religion!

Look at what Marx is saying when it comes to religion in paragraph 1: the authorities used religion in order to keep the people under control by making them believe in a happiness that was truly inexistent.
Option B explains how the same is done by using communism instead of religion.

[alanxfw8098]

this question should be revised completely.

[addiaz2714087]

agreed- question needs to be revised

[sleepyzboy2302]

agreed! this question, like many others, is worded in a very poor way. "no religious FREEDOM" usually means that the people do not have the FREEDOM to choose, not that they don't have ANY religion. That's my thought.

[jeanne7524]

Hi! Your points are quite reasonable. However, I don't think the statement needs any rephrasing: "In communist countries with no religious freedoms, the dominating classes may create an illusionary happiness for the underclass."

The term "dominating class" implies inequality which practically contradicts the basic concept of a classless society that communism promotes. This makes the statement of choice C inconsistent in itself and inconsistent with Karl Marx's view. Clearly, C is the best choice.

[acebshaw2450]

Terrible question....

In the passage itself, it says that the ruling class kept the "underclass" under control and that one of the ways to do this is through religion. And through religion the dominating classses would create "illusionary happiness for the poor"

Therefore if a communist government had a system with no religious freedom, then they are using religion to control and create "illusionary happiness"....Marx thought that religion could be used like this

Making claims about how the word communism doesn't fit with the separation of classes (as seen in the post above first off is wrong historically, and second of all the MCAT doesn't require prior knowledge of communism to answer a question....so no