Religion had originally come about, according to Marx, as a kind of escape of the exploited classes from the harsh realities of existence and an illusion that comforted one in the hope of a future reward. Although this was its origin with the oppressed classes, the ruling classes had taken control of religion and used it as a tool of emotional and intellectual control of the masses. Marx considered Christianity to have been like this, in its origin as a religion for slaves hoping for a reward after their harsh existence, but in later becoming a kind of deceptive ideology that the ruling classes used to maintain the status quo.