Beliefs in society

• Definitions of religion


  • Substantive: Focuses on the belief in a supernatural power or God
  • Functional: Focuses on social or psychological functions for an individual or society
  • Social Constructionist: Focuses on how members of society define religion
• Substantive definition


  • Exclusive
  • Western bias
• Functional definition


  • Inclusive
  • Suggests a football chant is a religion
• Social Constructionist definition


  • Can not produce a universal definition
  • Deeper meaning
• Features of religion


  • Beliefs – in the supernatural and/or incomprehensible powers (e.g. God) or sacred symbols (e.g. the Cross)
  • Theology – a set of teachings and beliefs
  • Practice – rituals of ceremonies to express beliefs
  • Institutions – some form of organisation of worshippers (e.g. churches)
  • Consequences – a set of moral or ethical values to guide everyday behaviour
• Belief Systems


  • Science
  • Religion
• Science


  • Open system
  • Popper: Scientific research is open to scrutiny, criticism and testing by others
  • Able to adapt to social change
  • Herberg: May dilute beliefs to stay relevant – known as internal secularisation
• Religion


  • Closed system
  • Kuhn: Science is based on a single paradigm which is ridiculed if challenged, unless undermined by evidence
  • Horton: It contains 'clauses' that prevent it from being disproved in the eyes of believers
  • Polanyi: Beliefs are self-sustained as they have three devices to undermine any contradictory evidence
  • Circularity – explaining religious ideas by using other religious components
  • Subsidiary explanations – religious leaders redirect focus when being challenged with some sort of explanation that does not contradict the religion
  • Denial of legitimacy to rivals – reject rival beliefs to show followers that they are only possible answer
• • Azande and witchcraft: Case study by Evans-Pritchard
  • Azande believe natural events are not coincidental or by chance
  • Misfortune is down to witchcraft
  • This prevents grudges and encourages neighbourly behaviour
  • E.g. westerners would believe a snake bit someone because they were walking in the grass but the Azande would argue someone cast a spell on the snake
• Ideology


  Religion focuses on a spiritual meaning, but ideology focuses on the political impact
• Ideologies


  • Marxism
  • Postmodernism
  • Feminism
• Mannheim


  Revolution can not occur until the working class develop a class consciousness
• Marx


  Ideological domination prevents class consciousness
• Abercrombie


  A fear of unemployment may prevent rebelling
• Lyotard


  Religion and science are meta-narratives. Religious teachings are no longer accepted as 'truth' in postmodern society due to the growth of scientific fact
• Oakley


  Bowlby's maternal deprivation is an example of science acting as an ideology, justifying gender inequality as children are damaged by working mothers
• All world views are produced without relation to everyday individuals so reflect the theorists views
• Types of world view

  • Ideological thought – justify tradition to resist social change
  • Utopian thought – attempts to promote social change
• Core principles of science

  • Pursuit of facts, supported by evidence
  • Objective
  • Studies the impact of cause-and-effect based on reliable data
• Impact of science on religion

  • Can cause conflicts, e.g. around medical treatments
  • Can be seen as contributing to secularisation
  • Disproved many religious beliefs about the beginning of the world
• Merton's CUDOS norms


  • Communism – scientific knowledge must be shared to grow
  • Universalism – scientific knowledge is judged by universal, objective criteria
  • Disinterestedness – scientists should publish honest findings, with no fraud or subjective bias
  • Organised Scepticism – all knowledge is open to scrutiny
• Aldridge's stages of transition from religious to scientific explanations


  • Theological stage – the world and human destiny are explained in terms of gods and spirits
  • Metaphysical stage – people see the world as being guided by an abstract power and is the combination of people having scientific views, but believing in a higher power
  • Scientific stage – scientific explanation based on observations and experiments which can be used to develop cause and effect relationships
• Perspectives on science and religion

  • Interpretivism – Scientific knowledge is socially constructed by social groups
  • Marxism – All ideologies are manipulated by the ruling class to maintain and reproduce inequality
  • Feminism – Ideologies promote patriarchy
  • Postmodernism – Lyotard: science is no different to other religions as they claim to know the truth about the world
• Functionalist perspective on religion

  • Durkheim – There is a fundamental distinction between the sacred (special) and the profane (normal)
  • Parsons – Worshipping symbols = worshipping society
  • Bellah – Studied an Australian aboriginal clan who performed rituals involving a sacred totem
  • Malinowski – Regular shared religious experiences strengthen collective conscience
  • Helps people cope with unforeseen events and uncontrollable outcomes
  • Promotes consensus and social stability
  • Civil religion is a belief system that attaches sacred qualities to society itself
  • Creates stability in a multi-religion society
  • Provides psychological functions to cope with stress in two situations: where the outcome is important but uncertain, and at times of crises
• Worsley: no sharp division between the sacred and profane
• Hard to generalise the functionalist perspective to societies with 2+ religions
• Functionalist perspective neglects negative functions e.g. oppression of women
• Marxist perspective on religion

  • Religion as an ideology – Justifies suffering as inevitable and God-given, so will be favoured in the afterlife
  • Acts as an ideological state apparatus to legitimise the power of the ruling class
  • Lenin: it is a 'spiritual gin' as it doles out the masses to keep them in their societal position – a mystical fog that obscures reality
  • Religion as a product of alienation – Promises an eventual escape from suffering with a good afterlife
  • Offers hope of supernatural intervention to solve problems on Earth, encouraging people to accept their position
  • Provides a religious explanation and justification for inequality
  • Existential security also causes people to become alienated as those with less security (e.g. in LEDC's) have greater demand for religion
• Marxist perspective is supported by Hinduism and caste system
• Marxist perspective ignores positive functions of religion
• Increasing secularisation – how much influence can Marxist perspective have in contemporary society?
• Neo-Marxist perspective on religion

  • Religion has a dual nature: Expression of 'the principle of hope' – our dreams of a better life that contain images of Utopia, deceiving people with false promises of rewards in heaven
  • The ruling class use hegemony to establish popular consent but the vision of a better world may motivate people to challenge the powerful
  • In societies where religion is dominant, the ruling class can only be overpowered with the support of the churches
  • Liberation theology: a movement in Christian theology which attempts to address the problems of poverty and social justice. E.g. overthrowing the communist regime in 1980's Poland
• Feminists argue gender is a larger factor than social class
• Feminist perspective on religion

  • Maintain patriarchy – Sacred texts mainly consist of strong, powerful males
  • Religious laws restrict female rights, such as dress codes
  • In Islam, menstruating women can not touch the Qur'an
  • Orthodox Judaism forbid women becoming priests
  • Second class believers – Religion maintains gender inequality by making women think they are equal to men in the eyes of God and will be compensated in the after life so they don't challenge their position
  • Stained glass ceiling – Women are often found at the bottom of the religious career ladder
  • There was no female priests in the Church of England until 2015, and still was only an 'assistant' priest
• The Greek believe in many goddesses
• Postmodernist perspective on religion

  • Lyotard – Many religions see themselves as the true representative of God and do not tolerate challenges from rivals, so are usually conservative and inflexible
  • Lyon – Religious leaders turn to the media to publicise their belief system, which has created a spiritual marketplace for people to move around religions to find which one suits their identity
  • Religious ideas have been disembedded as the media lifts them from their original context
  • NAMs – These focus on spirituality rather than devotion to God so are preferred in a postmodern society
  • Hervieu-Leger – There has been a dramatic decline in institutional religion as people become spiritual shoppers
  • Pick 'n' mix – People pick and mix beliefs and buy into, or reject, beliefs that most suit their lifestyle choices and the identity they want to project
• Bruce: Postmodernists have over exaggerated the demise of traditional religions
• Religion as a conservative force

  • Functionalist – Religion as a compensator, providing a universe of meaning and helping people make sense of the world
  • Marxist – Religion acts as an 'opium of the people' by cushioning the pain of oppression and legitimising the power of the ruling class
  • Interpretivist – Religion provides a universe of meaning which is now losing its role in modern society
  • Feminist – Many religions serve male interests, with beliefs that justify, reinforce and reproduce inequalities
• Religion as a force for social change

  • Calvinist beliefs – Predestination, Divine transcendence, Worldly asceticism
  • Calvinism led to capitalism as Calvinists were ascetic so saved all of their wealth, and so they used this money to invest and became richer and so on – they carried this on as they felt that this wealth was God's way of saying He was happy with their hard work
  • Kautsky – Weber underestimates economic factors as capitalism precedes Calvinism
• Factors that determine if religion is a conservative force or a force for social change

  • The nature and extent of religious beliefs
  • Significance of religion in a culture
  • Extent of the social involvement of religion
  • Degree of central authority in religious organisations