This is Angela O'Dell, and you are listening to Real Cool History for Kids, a podcast show featuring history told from a distinctly biblical worldview perspective.

Welcome to an adventure.

Welcome to episode 160 of Real Cool History for Kids. This episode is for Jude Spear, who wanted to hear the story of Carl Marx.

Hey Jude, this one's for you.

Hey, you guys, I need to apologize beforehand for my voice. I have a cold, so I kind of sound funny. So sorry about that. I'm just going to do the very best I can. Okay. Our story about Karl Marx, who is Carl Marx exactly? And why do people

still talk about him today?

Karl Marx was born in Germany in 1818.

His father was a lawyer and his family was Jewish.

Although before Carl was even old enough to remember,

his father converted the family to Christianity.

Why? Why did he do this? Well, not because he believed in the Bible or in Jesus, but because he didn't want to lose his job.

At the time, the government didn't allow Jewish people to work in certain jobs.

So, Carl Marx's dad made a decision based on what he thought was practical and smart.

But that decision had a really big impact on his son, Carl.

Carl was a bright, curious boy who loved to read and learn,

but he grew up without a strong faith in God, which later shaped his ideas. As he got older,

he actually started to hate religion and anything to do with God.

He believed that the idea of God made people weak and faith got in the way of progress. In fact, one of the most famous things Karl Marx ever said was that religion was like a drug that made people feel good while they were being treated unfairly.

He also said that religion was like it was a crutch for weak people. That's pretty harsh, isn't it?

But you know what? There's more to his story. Carl Marx became a writer and philosopher.

He spent a lot of time thinking and writing about how society worked. He believed that the world was divided into two groups of people. The rich people who owned businesses and land and the poor people who had to work for them just to survive. He didn't think this was fair, and instead of

believing that people should treat each other kindly or fairly because it's the right thing to do

...