Religion- Secularisation

Heelas and Woodhead

The kendel Project

Studied a Cumbrian town in Kendel

Church attendance =7.9% of town population attended one of the 22 churches

Mapping non-congregational activity in town

Increasing rapidly

ev. Kendel population = White British population ethnic groups were not represented

Berger

Sacred Canopy- In the past society only had one religion/ belief system

The emergence of pluralism and a range of religious beliefs lead to weakening of the sacred canopy

Questioning of religion as no longer one absolute religion

Parsons

Structural differentiation

religion is no longer important part of the organic analogy religion used to run schools, hospitals, churches,

churches was part of the community

governments now does what religion does

Weber

Religion use to be important under the Catholic church

God = all seeing and believing responsible for deaths illness and harvests

Protestant churches society changes as religion changes as god is now somebody who looks down

people wanted answers - growth of science and rational thought replaced religion by explaining things

religion is no longer needed

Statistics

2015- 5% of population attended church

religion is dying out

Methodists churches will die out

People do not see themselves as religious

2021 consensus- 46% of the population identified as Christian

13% decrease from last year

Increase in people identifying as atheists increase up to 37%
Slight increase in people identifying as Muslim 6.5% and Hindu 1.7%

Meera nanda

The God’s market- Globalisation made India more Hindu-

Huge inequality between extremely rich and the working class

Lead to an increase in religiosity of the new middle class

They believed their wealth was due to Hinduism

Contrasted their neighbours Pakistan who were Islamic blaming their religion on their economic failure