Religion is a tool used by the bourgeoisie to subvert dissidence and achieve control. Religion can dull the pain of oppression in a number of ways. The Christian vision of heaven can make life on earth more bearable by giving people something to look forward to. Some religions make suffering a virtue. Religion helps make poverty and hardship more tolerable by offering a reward for suffering and promising justice in the afterlife.
Religion can also offer hope of supernatural intervention to solve the problems of life.
Some religious groups wait for the day of redemption when heaven is created on earth. Anticipation of a future paradise can make the hardships of the present far more tolerable. Perhaps more importantly, religion can justify the social order and a person's position within it. From a Marxist point of view, religion not only reduces the effects of oppression, it is also an instrument of oppression. Religion acts as a tool of social control, maintaining the existing system of exploitation and reinforcing the existing stratification order.