Beliefs in Society

Theories of religion
1. Functionalism
  1. Religion promotes social solidarity
  2. Religion represents a collective conscience that makes social order possible
  3. Religion Unifies society
  4. Religion is the source of our ability to think clearly
2. Marxism
  1. Religion is an Ideology that hides capitalism
  2. A product of alienation 'opium of the people'
3. Feminism
  1. Religion is patriarchal
    1. Organisations are male dominated
    2. Teachings focus on men
  2. Forms of religious femimism
    1. Women using religion to gain freedom and respect
Religion and Social change
1. Conservative force
  1. Aims to preserve things as they are, or impose traditional values
  2. Maintains social stability and prevents disintegration
  3. Legitimises capitalism and patriarchy, promoting consensus
2. Religion as a force for change
  1. Calvinism
    1. Predestination, Divine transcendence, Asceticism, the call to serve good through work everyday
      1. Considered to be the start of capitalism
  2. Hinduism
    1. An ascetic religion hat was other-worldy, directing followers to the spiritual world
  3. Confucianism
    1. A this worldly religion that directed its followers towards the material world, not ascetic
3. Religion as social protest
  1. American civil rights movement
    1. Took moral high ground and mobalised public opinion
    2. Aimed to end racial segregation by shaming whites into changing the law
  2. New christian right
    1. Aims to take america back to a time before liberalisation, believes in the traditional family and gender roles
      1. Never had more than 15% of american population in support
4. Marxism
  1. Liberation Theology
    1. Movement within the catholic church that opposed dictatorships and helped to being about democracy in latin america
  2. Millenarian movements
    1. The desire to change things here and now, they expect total and immediate transformation of the world by supernatural means, appeal to the poor because of the immediate improvement that they offer.
Secularisation
1. Explanations
  1. Rationalisation; a change in the way that people think, away from religion and towards rational ones
  2. Structural differentiation; Religions functions have transfered to other institutions, it has lost its power. Such as education, welfare and laws. Relgion must now confom to these rules
  3. Social and Cultural diversity; Industrialisation means that religion has now become more diverse and overall belief has fallen
  4. Religious diversity; The protestant refomation caused a number of sects to appear from the catholic church. these beleifs caused overall confidence inrelgion to fall as people saw many versions of the truth.
  5. Cultural defence and transition; Secularisation isnt occuring because religion provides a focus for the defence of national/ethnic group identity in a struggle against an external force. It also provides a sense of community of ethnic groups
  6. Spritual revolution
    1. Traditional religion giving way to New Age sprituality that emphasises personal development
      1. Traditional relgion was in decline becuase it demanded high disapline and objectivity which does not fit into a postmodern society that emphasises personal development and individualism
2. In the UK
  1. Decline in church attendance
  2. More people hold beliefs than go to chuch
  3. State has taken over functions of the church
3. In the USA
  1. Decline in church attendance
  2. Secularisation from within; religion has become a form of therapy, it has become less religious
  3. Practical relativism
    1. The acceptance that others can hold beliefs different to yours
Religion, Renewal and Choice
1. Postmodernity and religion
  1. Believing without belonging
    1. Religion is becoming privatised, so people don't feel the need to go to church, people are choosing to be religious but not go to church
  2. Spiritual shopping
    1. There has been 'cultural amnesia', a loss of beliefs handed down through generations. Religion is now based on DIY beliefs not collective worship
  3. Lyon: Jesus in Disneyland
    1. Religion has been 'deinstitutionalised' by globalisation, relocated to a different place and time
    2. We are spritual shoppers, pick and mixing different parts of different relgions to meet our needs, attendance falls but belief doesn't
    3. Re-enchantment of the world; a growth of unconventionalbeliefs and practises
2. Religious market theory
  1. Provides supernatural compensators for unobtainable and real-world goals. Only religion has the power to do such things.
  2. There is a constant cycle of decline, renewal and revival, leading to an improvement in the quality of religious goods on offer
3. Existential security theory
  1. Different degrees in how secure people feel causes different degrees in religiosity
    1. MEDC: High security = Low religiosity
      1. USA is an exception because high inequality = high religious belief
    2. LEDC: Low security = highly religious
Religion in global context
1. Nanda
  1. Hinduism promotes diversity and wealth, leading to the M/C becoming richer, increasing their religiosity and legitimising their position
2. Pentecostalism
  1. Demands a self denying way of life that promotes personal development
  2. Promotes economic development, helping to raise societies out of poverty leading to the development of capitalism
  3. Christianity globalised itself by expanding into S.America, spread because of easy to follow beliefs and its ability to follow loose culture.
3. Fundamentalism
  1. Returning to the basics of a faith, a reaction to globalisation which threatens norms
  2. Monothesism - belief in one god
    1. Causes fundamentalism because globalisation brings diversity, so is a threat to their religion.
  3. Two fundamentalisms
    1. In The West; due to increased diversity from within
    2. In the third world; due to increased diversity from 'outside'
4. Cultural defence
  1. Religion symbolises a groups collective identity and unites them against an external threat
5. clash of civilisations
  1. There are multiple different civilisations with different backgrounds, this often leads to conflict because these backgrounds are not compatible.
Organisations, Movements and Members
1. Organisations
  1. Sects
    1. Small, exclusive groups that are hostile to wider society. Breakaways from existing organisation often offering otherworldly benefits
  2. Cults
    1. Highly individualistic, no defining belief system, world affirming offering this worldly benefits
  3. Denominations
    1. Midway between churches and sects, accept societies views, not linked to the state, tolerant of other views
  4. Churches
    1. Large, few demands, monopoly of the truth, linked to the state
2. NRMs
  1. Grown because of:
    1. Marginality
    2. Relative deprivation
    3. Social change undermining norms producing anomie
  2. World-rejecting
    1. Critical of the outside world, expect radical change
  3. World-accomodating
    1. Focus on religious rather than worldly matters
  4. World-affirming
    1. Offer followers access to spiritual or supernatural powers and accept the world as it is
3. Religiosity and social groups
  1. More women believe in god.
    1. Due to marginalisation, deprivation and socialisation
  2. Minority ethnic groups are more religious
  3. The older a person is the more likely they are to be religious
    1. Older people may be too ill to attend
    2. Under 15's may be made to attend
4. The New Age
  1. New, diverse belief systems
  2. People look inside themselves to find spirituality
  3. Values personal experience
Ideology and Science
1. Science as a belief system
  1. Science is an open belief system Open beliefs: open to criticism and testing, ideas are open to falsificationism, they can be disproved by evidence
  2. Religion is a closed belief system; its knowledge claims cannot be overturned
    1. It has get out clauses that prevent it being disproved
  3. Marxists and Feminists see science as serving the needs of the dominant classes.
  4. Postmodernists reject sciences claims that they hold the truth, as they argue that science now simply serves the interests of capitalism
2. Ideology
  1. capitalist ideology exploits workers for profit, the ruling class hegemony prevents a class consciousness from developing by legitimising capitalism
  2. gender inequality is legitimated by patriarchal ideology

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Beliefs in Society

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	Created by benjaminboreham96 about 9 years ago