Beliefs

Cards (54)

  • Totemism
    people perform rituals to help provide support + ensure feelings of belonging
  • Durkheim
    argues that religion helps create + maintain value consensus, social order + solidarity
  • Malinowski
    provides a psychological function, helps individuals cope with emotional stress eg through ill health, exams
  • Parsons
    answers the big questions in life
  • Marxists belief on religion
    creates a false consciousness - "easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the need than for a rich man to enter the gates of heaven" + hindu caste system
  • feminist theory on religion
    religion promotes patriarchy, no women imams or priests in the Catholic Church
    menstruation huts
    crocodile backs
  • force for change
    liberation theology, MLK
  • Conservative force
    functionalists - maintains social solidarity
    marxists - capitalism prevents social change by creating a false consciousness
    feminists - maintains subordination(patriarchy) in society and within the family
  • secularisation 

    decline in the importance of religion
  • globalisation
    the process by which economies and cultures have been drawn together and become more interconnected
  • post-modernism
    modern society is a fragmented stable media saturated global village
  • post-modernism consists of 3 things....
    choice, consumerism and individualism
  • spiritual shopping
    people have more choice and can choose the bits that best suit peoples lives
  • Believing without belonging
    davie argues that religion is not declining but simply taking a different form - people still believe however less attendance at church
  • Lyon
    agrees with believing without belonging however argues that traditional religion is taking new forms due to an increase in globalisation
  • online religion
    allows individual to create non-hierarchical relationship and create sense of community
  • religion online
    religious organisation uses internet to address members, electronic traditional, hierarchal communication
  • meta- narratives

    big stories
  • Kendal project
    Heelas + Woodhead found a decline in traditional religion
    traditional = 7.9% attendance
    holistic milieu = 1.6% attendance
  • New age
    focuses on individualism
  • Religious market theory 

    Stark + Bainbridge see secularisation as very Eurocentric
    propose a new idea:
    people naturally need religion - the demand remains consistent
    people seek rewards
  • religious monopoly
    one church with no competition
  • how do we know the world in becoming more secular?
    parents not passing on religious teaching to their children allowing them to make their own decisions
    fewer people identifying as religious
    less people attending religious services
    no social stigma around not being religious
  • Existential security theory 

    Norris and Inglehart argue poor societies where people with life threatening risks are more religious
    rich societies have lower levels of religiosity as they are more secure
  • Statistics for church attendance
    5% go to church however 42% say they believe in life after death
  • State welfare + religiosity
    Gill + Lundegaarde expects that religion will never fully disappear completely as it provides answers for the ultimate questions in life
  • fundamentalism 

    they like tradition and often look back to the past, they seek to return to the basics of their faith
  • the key features of fundamentalism
    sacred texts - taken literal
    us + them mentality - separate themselves from the rest of the world
    aggressive reaction - reactions tend to be aggressive
    they like using technology to televangelism
    patriarchy - control over women
  • Secular fundamentalism 

    Davie argues that recent decades have been emergence of secular forms of fundamentalism - she distinguishes two forms
  • Churches
    a large organisations, attracting to the higher classes
  • Sects
    small exclusive groups - hostile to wider society and attracts poor oppressed people
  • denomination 

    they don't appeal to the whole of society - broadly accept society's values but are not liked with the state + they impose minor restrictions upon members eg no alcohol
  • Cult 

    loose-knit small group with shared themes or interests - they claim to have special knowledge and do not demand strong commitment from followers - claim to improve the world
  • gender statistics
    women 84% believe in god compared to 75% men
  • Ethnicity statistics 

    white anglicans 11% rate religion as important in their lives 74% muslims
  • relative deprivation 

    subjective sense of being deprived - mc are spiritually deprived leading to them lacking in moral value
  • Sectarian cycle 

    tension between privileged and deprived members of the church break away to form a world rejecting sect
  • why are women more likely to be religious
    due to socialisation - women are socialised into be less risk averse, this means they don't want to risk not being religious as they don't know what happens when we die
    they have more time - more likely to work part time
  • Women and the new age
    80% found to take part in holistic milieu in the kendal project
    it gives women a higher status and sense of self-worth
  • class differences between women + new age
    mc have the belief that they are able to control their own destiny
    wc have a fatalistic belief - god controls them