Marx called religion 'the opiate of the masses'. It must be realized that when he originally said this, he didn't mean it negatively. He wasn't insulting religion, he was commending it for it's alleviation of suffering. He did indeed think that the need for religion would disappear and it would become a vestige of the past, but the often-quoted 'religion of the opiate of the masses', so often used derisively, was not originally a negative statement.
Religious types may shy away from the idea that religion is in some way 'like a drug', but there is truth in this. It is the same truth that is found in the philosophy of hedonism, a variety of which (Christian Hedonism) I ascribe to: it seems rational to pursue happiness as a primary if not the primary goal of one's life. The reason drug addiction is hard to kick, and I know that it is from experience, is that drug addiction stems not from a delusion, but from a realization: feeling good is important.
When I left drugs I mourned what I had lost, because what I had lost was the most joyous and exciting experiences of my life. I had never been as happy as I was when I was high. Yet somehow, in the faintest way, I had come to realize that feeling good was not all there was: doing good mattered to. I had become a total waste, and I didn't like this thought, though I could not see any way to be happy and not be a total waste.
I knew that some religious-types had claimed to achieve a kind of nirvana, a state of being that was matched by nothing else. Some said faith could bring the confluence of goodness and happiness I sought. So I put myself behind a particular religious vision and gave it my all. Life did improve, but for a long time I still did not know the happiness I knew when I was on drugs. But I had decided, committed myself, to putting my all behind this way in the hope that some day, some how, perhaps not even in this life, I'd find the happiness I once had and perhaps something greater, without sacrificing the other values of life as well.
It took years of meditation, prayer, scriptural study, and life changes to start experiencing things equal to, and then beyond, what I had when I did drugs. Today, I truly can get higher without drugs than with drugs. And indeed, this is a big reason why I am a person of faith.
But it is not true that I have traded one drug for another. Or it is not necessarily true. A secularist will look at my transformation in just this way, though the person I am now on religion is so much better than the person I was then on drugs. You wouldn't want to know me then, there is at least a chance you might want to know me now. But I don't see this as trading one drug for another. Rather, I see drug addiction as a form of idolatry. It is seeking from something other than God what you should be getting FROM God. Drugs are demonic, they provide a genuine experience, but without the spiritual-moral struggle and without genuine contact from the divine. They pull worship from God. Drugs are the idolatry of our generation.
But just as the Bible does not deny that pagan gods can give their adherents power, I do not deny that there is some similarity between the activity of drugs and the benefits of genuine spirituality. If there were not, drugs would have no power. However, the gifts of God are greater, and fuller, and they change one's life for the better. It just takes more work to get them. It's like Yoda says, the dark side is not stronger than the light, it is just quicker, easier and more seductive.
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