3. 3
Religion and Society
• What is religion?
– A system of beliefs, rituals, and ceremonies
– Promotes community among followers
– Provides a personal spiritual experience for its
members
4. 4
The Great Transformation of Societies
• In preindustrial societies, religion dominates all
aspects of society.
• In industrial societies, the institution of religion has
become separated from many social and economic
activities
5. 5
Function of Religion
• What does religion do for people?
– Gives them hope of something better than what
they have now.
– Gives answers to unknowing questions.
• What happens when I die?
• Why am I here?
• What is the point to life?
– Serves to bind people together in times of crisis and
confusion
6. 6
Social Change
• How can religion contribute to social
change?
• Protestant work ethic:
• Disciplined commitment to worldly labor driven by
a desire to bring glory to God
• Shared by followers of Martin Luther and John
Calvin
• Do you think Religion teaches ‘work ethic’?
• How?
7. 7
Social Control
• Can religion control society?
– Yes?
– Inhibits social change
– Forces masses into submission by offering a
consolation for their harsh lives on earth
– Promotes social instability by perpetuating patterns of
social inequality
– Believers vs. Nonbelievers
10. 10
Gender and Religion
– Women have played fundamental role in religious
socialization
• However, they take subordinate role in religious
leadership
• Most religions are patriarchal
– Leader is a male
– Reinforce men’s dominance in secular and spiritual matters
• Women compose 12.8 percent of U.S. clergy
11. 11
Characteristics of Religion
• Beliefs
– Ideas, based upon faith, that people consider true
• The sacred
– Sacred: that which has supernatural qualities
• Rituals
– Routines that reinforce the faith
• Moral communities
– People who share a religious belief
• Personal experience
– Grants meaning to life
14. 14
Components of Religion
– Denomination:
– Large, organized religion with strong support
in the world
– Christianity
– Muslim
– Judaism
– Hinduism
15. 15
Components of Religion
– Sect:
– Relatively small religious group that has broken
away from some other religious organization to
renew what it considers the original vision of
the faith
• Protestants
• Episcopalians
• Church of Christ
17. 17
Components of Religion
– Cult
– Small, alternative faith community that
represents either a new religion or a major
innovation in an existing faith
• Similar to sects
• Tend to be small
• Are often viewed as less respectable than
more established faiths
18. 18
Sects and Cults
• Cults
– Non-conventional religious
group
– Social conditions demand
separation
– Members required to
withdraw from normal life
– Full-time communal
obligation for members
19. 19
Christianity
• World’s largest religion
• 2 largest branches
– Roman Catholic
• Pope is head of Church in Vatican City.
– Protestant
• Luther breaks away from Roman Catholic Church in 16th
century
20. Islam
• Second largest religion in world
• Significant beliefs and practices
– Only one god that all must recognize
– Daily prayer, share wealth, pilgrimage
• No centralized authority
– Local clerics rule often with close state ties
– Two major sects
• Sunni
• Shiite
20
21. Judaism
• Numerically smallest of world religions
• Important beliefs:
– God’s chosen people
– Torah: first 5 books of the Bible; oldest truths from God
• Major divisions
– Orthodox: strictly traditional
– Reform: liberal and worldly
– Conservative: middle ground between Orthodox and
Reform
21
22. Hinduism
• Largest of the Eastern religions
– Concentrated largely in India
• Important beliefs
– Dharma: special force makes daily demands and sacred
obligations
– Karma: spirit remains through life, death, rebirth
• Organization
– Caste membership
22
23. Buddhism
• Large religion throughout Asia
– Includes southeast Asian countries and China
• Based upon teachings of the Buddha, the
enlightened one
– Monks and lay people spread his teachings
• Important beliefs
– To relieve human suffering one must follow a path that
ultimately leads to enlightenment
– “Right” thoughts and actions must be daily performed and
evaluated through meditation
23
24. Confucianism
• Originated with Confucius attempting to solve practical
problems of daily living
– Wisdom summarized guides management of society
• Jen: human sympathy that binds people in 5 basic
relationships
– Sovereign and subject
– Parent and child
– Older brother and younger brother
– Husband and wife
– Friend and friend
• Proper etiquette and ritual help these relationships
24
26. Is religion bad?
• Stunts intellectual growth
– Spanish Inquisition
• Arrested or killed any philosophers against Church.
– Galileo
– Enlightenment Movement in Europe.
• Causes social inequality
– Believers vs. nonbelievers
– Denomination vs. Denomination
27. Is religion good?
• Gives hope of something better!
• Answers questions science fails to.
• Gives us community spirit!
– Not to mention cool holidays!
29. Marxist theories of religion
• Marx’s theory of religion needs to be seen in
the context of his general view of society,
capitalism dominates the working class
Whereas functionalism sees religion as a
unifying force that strengthens the value
consensus and is a feature of all societies.
Marxism sees religion as a feature only of
class- divided society, as such there will be no
need for religion in classless society and it will
disappear.
30. Religion As Ideology
• For Marx, ideology is a belief system that
changes people’s perception of reality in ways
that serve the interests of the ruling class. He
argues that the class that controls economic
production also controls the production and
distribution of ideas in society, though
institutions such as the church, the education
system and the media
31. Cont…
• In Marx’s view, religion operates as an ideological
weapon used by the ruling class to justify the suffering
of the poor as something inevitable and God-given.
Religion misleads the poor into believing that their
suffering is virtuous and that they will be favoured in
the afterlife. Such beliefs create a false consciousness.
Lenin describes religion as ‘spiritual gin’- an intoxicant
doled out to the masses by the ruling class to continue
them and keep them in their place. Lenin argues the
ruling class use religion cynically to manipulate the
masses and keep them from attempting to overthrow
the ruling class by creating a ‘mystical fog’ that
obscures reality.
32. Cont…
• Religion legitimates the power and privilege of
the dominate class by making their position
appear to be divinely ordained. For example,
the 16th century idea of the Divine Right of
the Kings was the belief that that the king is
God’s representative on earth and is owed
total obedience to God’s authority.
33. Religion And Alienation
• Alienation involves becoming separated from or loosing control
over something that one has produced or created. Alienation exists
in all classes, but is more extreme under capitalism. Under
capitalism workers are alienated because they do not own what
they produce and have no control over the production process, and
have no freedom to express their true nature detailed division of
labour in the capitalist factory, where the worker endlessly repeats
the same tasks. Religion acts as an opiate to dull the pain of
exploitation. But just as opium masks pain rather than treating its
cause, so religion masks the underlying problem of exploitation that
creates the need for it. Because religion is a distorted view of the
world, it can offer no solution to earthly misery. In instead, its
promises of the afterlife create an illusory happiness that distracts
attention from the true source of the suffering, namely
capitalism.
34. Cont…
• Thus, Marx sees religion as the product of
alienation. It arises out of suffering and acts as
a consolation for it, but fails to deal with its
cause namely class exploitation. Religion acts
as an ideology that legitimates both the
suffering of the poor and the power of the
working class.
35. Evaluation
• Marx shows how religion may be a tool of
oppression that masks exploitation and
creates a false consciousness. However, he
ignores positive functions of religion e.g.
psychological adjustment to misfortune. Neo-
Marxists see certain forms of religion as
assisting not hindering the development of
class consciousness.
36. 36
Durkheim Theory
Durkheim viewed religion as an integrative force in human
society
Gives meaning and purpose to people’s lives
Gives people ultimate values and ends to hold in common
Strengthens social integration within specific faiths and
denominations
In some instances, religious loyalties
are dysfunctional
38. Inside Forces
• Forty percent of Americans change faiths
during their lives. Some changes are relatively
minor–moving from a conservative Baptist
church to a more liberal Methodist church.
Others are more substantial, such as
converting from Christianity to Judaism or
dropping religion altogether.
39. Cont…
• Most of like to think of such religious
changes as an individual choice. Even if we
continue in the faith in which we were
raised, we see this as a conscious
decision. And the reason we made this choice
is, of course, reasonable and thought-out.
40. Cont…
• Sociologists find such claims to be dubious.
Religion may be a choice, but this choice is
shaped by forces outside of our control.
Without realizing it, our religious choices are
constrained by our families, our ethnicities,
our neighborhoods, and our occupations.
41. Outside forces
• Changes in education
• Changes in marital status
• Changes in geography
• Changes in assimilation (or the continuity of
recent immigrant communities)
42. Changes in education
• People who obtain more education than those
in their childhood faith are 18% more likely to
leave religion.
43. Changes in marital status
• People are more likely to switch their religious
choices when they marry, when they divorce,
or when a spouse dies.
44. Changes in geography.
• Change your location, change your religion.
Even those who move within the same region
of the country are more likely to make some
type of religious change.
45. Changes in assimilation
• First and second generation immigrants are
more likely to stick with their religion than are
other Americans whose families immigrated
earlier in history.
