Not exactly... This was Marx' doctrine, that God is "opium" for common folk...
Actually, many rich people believe in God, and many people get rich by believing in God. Whole Church, for example. Also, most people lose their piety in bad situation. Many priests and pastors could not work longer, because after death of someone from family they lost their faith in God's justice...
Hmm, I somehow believed some time ago that the whole 'God' process works like this: Gods creates people, people create their own God.
I don't like to repeat myself in life, so I'll put some quotes from a story I once wrote, "Doom Legacy", on which I somehow wanted to base "Fall from Grace" game, it told a story of a specific, easily understandable world which fell prey to creatures dwelling in it...
THE BEGINNING
At the beginning, the Sculptor made the clay. And from that clay, he
createn has all the world and every Creature alive. [...]
[...]
THE NEW AGE
And so, a New Age began. And the culture, that was once vanquished,
now raised again and the Creatures once again to power called.
But among them, there was the One. And One, that was chosen, said:
We cannot fight each other, nor control the power! The Sculptor only
has the power to do so, and so we must create a Temple to thank
Sculptor for what he done! And so, Creatures have createn a Temple,
in which the built a monument o a Sculptor. And on the top of that
Temple, the built a Curtain again, to prevent Temple of destruction
by Apollion. And then, the One said: Why our power muyst belong to us?
Let Sculptor rule us, for he is the wisest one!
[...]
THE SECOND ONE
And the third One was chosen because the old One died. And the new One
said: Have the Sculptor said we can't battle? There are other Creatures
that live not within a Temple, and they are doomed because they
are not friends of Sculptor and Curtain does not protect them, we must
destroy them because they are Evil! And so, he createn Evil. First
thing it was, what was called Evil, and what was Evil in itself,
and so he chosen Evil and he called it Evil, because Evil it was,
in his tought. But then, a Scultptor felt his Creatures are going
wrong way, and so came onto earth and said: Stop! You are Evil, the One
said, and you are a daemon! You are an illusion created to destroy our
Temple! You are the mirage to change Good into Evil! You shall be
doom of us all! But the Scultptor said: I am the Sculptor! And there
is no creation beyond mine! And you have no right to create Evil
without my will! And change my will, you have yours own! And the One
said: Liar! There is only one Sculptor, we must pray to and thank
him, because he createn us! And Evil you are, and begone! And then,
all the Creatures that haven't Sculptor knew, found he was a Sculptor,
and the Creatures that listed to the third One where in error, and
they thought it is a daemon and Evil. And so, a chaos appeared, and
the Sculptor said: Is this your prayer, o One? The will of yours
you place before the will of many and me? Then be damned!
[...]
(I've put my favourite lines in bold, about the true origin of Evil)
Yeah, it contains lots of ortographic mistakes (it was even prior to my later 'bible', Song of Azrael), but there is still some sense in it.
In case you don't get some parts, the Apollion is a powerful globe of energy, like sun, energy which has power to give life and to take it. Creatures have created the Machine, which prevented Apollion's lethal energy, but later the Machine had an error and prevented the vital energy, and to prevent their deaths, creatures have created Curtain atop the Temple which shielded them. (at least this is how I remember it)
