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What did Weber argue?
Religion is a belief in a supernatural power such as God that lacks a scientific explanation.
Religion was one of the causes of the rise of capitalism. Religious people were concerned their fate in the afterlife was predetermined, and through Calvinism, they lived in asceticism and self discipline, not using the money they earn for their pleasures, benefitting capitalists as a result
What did Durkheim argue?
Religion helps social integration and bringing people together
Sacred symbols such as totems represent collective consciousness, worshipping the same norms and values that make society work
What did Aldridge argue?
People have a different definition for what religion is.
The community doesnât have to be in a particular area to thrive, with Muslim communities being all over the world.
Fundamentalists have their own interpretation of the Bible instead of whatâs actually in the Bible
What did Malinowski argue?
Religion can provide comfort, explanation and meaning during times of life crisis and during important yet uncontrollable and uncertain events
What did Parsons argue?
Sees religion as a way of life that answers lifeâs biggest questions.
Separate, specialised institutions are developed to carry out functions previously performed by a single institution, meaning that religion has now become a specialised institution
What did Bellah argue?
American society is unified by an overarching civil religion that is loyal to the USA, such as through children in school pledging allegiance to the flag and singing the national anthem
What did Marx argue?
Religion is used as an ideological weapon by the ruling class to justify the suffering of the poor, which:
Cushion the pain of oppression for the working class
Justifies the power of the middle class
Nationalism prevents capitalism being overthrown through dividing the international working class, encouraging workers to believe they have more in common with the capitalists in their country than with workers of other countries, enabling the ruling class to persuade the working class to fight wars on their behalf.
What did Lenin argue?
Religion is used as a spiritual gin, the ruling class use religion to manipulate the masses to keep them in a âmystical fogâ that obscures reality, not thinking for themselves in a battle against capitalism.
What did Hoverd and Sibley argue?
In New Zealand, religious people living in deprived areas have higher subjective well being than non religious people living in the same place
What did Maduro argue?
Priests in South America in the 60s and 70s played major roles in fighting military dictatorship, showing that religion can be used to fight oppression
What did De Beauvoir argue?
âMan is master by divine rightâ in most religions
What did Woodhead argue?
Catholic Churches oppose equality through banning contraception, abortion, womenâs access to the priesthood and the traditional role of women being encouraged
What did Armstrong argue?
Early forms of religion such as those found in the Middle East 6000 years ago placed women at the centre through female Gods and priestesses. It was the rise of monotheism and powerful male Gods that led to the patriarchal values we see in religion today
What did El Saadawi argue?
It is society, not religion, that is patriarchal. Religion is recontextualised to be patriarchal as a result of society
What did Bruce argue?
The black clergy was the backbone of the American Civil Rights movement, and it was successful in shaming whites into changing the law through appealing to their shared Christian values, seeing religion as an ideological source (e.g. Highlighting the hypocrisy of âLove thy Neighbourâ if black people wonât be treated with respect).
However, The New Christian Right did not bring social change due to campaigners not cooperating with others with different beliefs, lacking the widespread support from wider society and the democratic and liberal values of the American society.
Stable rate of self reporting has masked the decline of people going to church
Growth of technological worldview explains why things happen, such as a plane crash being due to a technological explanation and not due to Godâs punishment.
If people are no longer willing to go to church, it reflects the declining strength of their beliefs.
Stats show diversity and religion declined in Europe and America, so competition hasnât increased the demand for religion
Fundamentalists are more likely to believe in a monotheistic religion due to following only one God
What did Lehmann argue?
Liberation Theology: Offers an option for the poor of community consciousness-raising and campaigning for social change
Pentecostalism: Offers an option of the poor for the individual to pull themselves out of poverty through hard work.
What did Wilson argue?
In 1962, 65% of Americans attended church on Sundays. Churchgoing in America was more of an expression of the âAmerican way of lifeâ. Argues America is becoming secular as religion there has become superficial just for the vibe of going to Church.
Move from preindustrial to industrial society means thereâs less of a community, shared values once expected through collective religious rituals is now gone.
What did Lynd and Lynd argue?
94% of church going young people agreed Christianity is the one true religion and everyone should be converted into it in 1924.
In 1977, only 41% agreed.
What did Popper argue?
Science is an âopenâ belief system, every scientistâs theory is open to scrutiny.
What did Horton argue?
Closed belief systems aim to have special, perfect knowledge of the absolute truth and can not be questioned.
What did Evans-Pritchard argue?
Witchcraft and curses actually promote social solidarity, as they encourage neighbours to be nice to eachother so that they donât get accused of witchcraft.
What did Kuhn argue?
Scientific Revolutions question and undermine paradigm if the paradigm has accumulations of anomie
What did Knorr-Cenita argue?
Inventions of new instruments such as telescopes allow scientists to construct or fabricate new facts.
What did Woolgar argue?
Scientists must decide what evidence means, and must convince other scientists to believe their theory
What did Abercrombie et al argue?
Economic factors such as fear of unemployment keep workers from rebelling
What did Marks argue?
Ideas from science justify excluding women from science, quoting doctors, scientists and educationalists who say that if women went to science, it would âdisqualify women from their true vocationâ, which is nurturing the next generation
What did Bowles and Gintis argue?
The ruling class promotes âthe poor are dumbâ theory of meritocracy: everyone has an equal chance in life, so the poor must be poor because they are stupid or lazy
What did Gramsci argue?
Workers have dual consciousness - A mixture of ruling-class ideology and ideas that they develop from their own experiences of exploitation. This means that they can break free and overthrow capitalism
What did Mannheim argue?
Intellectuals have a one-sided partial view of the world. They should detach from social groups and create an overall worldview, piecing together ideological and utopian thought through becoming âfree-floating intelligentsiaâ
What did Davie argue?
Religion isnât declining but changing to promote individualism and choice, such as baptism in England and France now no longer being mandatory
Religion is also taking a more privatised form, where people are more reluctant to belong to organisations such as churches, which is called âbelieving without belongingâ
Fundamentalism seeks to establish certainty against what they see as social and cultural chaos, feeling threatened by modernity
Religious Fundamentalists are now going against science and the âEnlightenment projectâ, arguing that technology has caused more problems than solved, such as climate change and antibiotic resistance
What did Voas and Crockett argue?
Evidence from 5750 respondents shows that both church attendance and belief in God is declining, showing that people are not believing nor belonging.
What did Day argue?
People are âbelieving in belongingâ, they only describe themselves as Christian to say they belonged to the white english ethnic group.
What did Hervieu-Leger argue?
Religion is declining due to it no longer being passed down generation to generation by parents, allowing children more choice to decide what to believe in.
People are becoming spiritual shoppers, picking and choosing what to believe in.
What did Helland argue?
Religion has a strong presence online through
Religion online: Top down communication where religious institutions convert individuals online, featuring a hierarchy.
Online religion: âcyber religionâ with no hierarchy where the individual converts others.
What did Hoover et al argue?
For most users, online religion is just a supplement to their church-based activities rather than a substitute for them.
What did Berger argue?
Believability of beliefs is undermined by alternatives.
What did Lyon argue?
Religion is evolving from institutional spirituality to a new age of self discovery, individualism and âinner selfâ, as we now enter âre-enchantmentâ
What did Heela and Woodhead argue?
The rise of the holistic milieu (New Age) is because of the subjective turn in todayâs culture, involving a shift away from doing what you are told and exploring yourself by following a spiritual path.
In Kendal 1851 to now, churchgoers dropped from 14500 to 3000, which canât be compensated for by the 270 people in the holistic milieu, meaning that The New Age needs to be equal in scale to traditional religion in order to replace it.
In Kendal, only 32% of parents in the holistic milieu said their child shared the same interest. Women in the holistic milieu are more likely to be childless and less likely to pass their beliefs onto the next generation as they want to give their children the choice to believe what they want.
What did Glendinning and Bruce argue?
People dabbled with New Age beliefs, but didnât commit to it like other religions, leading to a lack of commitment.
What did Stark and Bainbridge argue?
People are religious because religion has compensators (life after death in Heaven, Blessings from God) when real-world rewards are unobtainable.
Most successful churches are ones which supply the most valuable compensators.
Sects promise otherworldly benefits such as heaven to those suffering economic deprivation. Cults offer this-worldly benefits such as good health to those suffering from psychic deprivation.
What did Hadden and Shupe argue?
The growth of televangelism (preaching on TV) in America shows that the levels of religious participation is supply-led. When commercial funding of religious broadcasts began in the 1960s, it opened up competition in which evangelical churches thrived.
What did Beckford argue?
Religious markets assume people are naturally religious, failing to explain why people make the choices they do.
Giddens distinguished too sharply between cosmopolitanism and fundamentalism, ignoring âhybrid movementsâ
Fundamentalists are too fixated on fundamentalism and ignore other important developments such as Globalisation affecting Catholicism
Giddens ignores differences of different types of fundamentalism, lumping all fundamentalists together
Giddens description of fundamentalism ignores that reinventing tradition is also a modern, reflective activity
What did Norris and Inglehart argue?
There are high levels of religious participation where Churches have a near monopoly such as Ireland and Venezuela, whereas countries more equal in religion like Australia have low levels, showing that competition isnât a factor for rising religiosity.
Rejects religious market theory as it only applies to USA and no other society.
Huntington was only half right, the cultural fault line that divides the West and the Muslim world is not about democracy but sex. Muslims and their Western counterparts want democracy but are worlds apart when it comes to attitudes towards divorce, abortion, gender equality and gay rights, which may not bode well for democracyâs future in the Middle East
What did Giddens argue?
Fundamentalism is contrasted with Cosmopolitanism, which embraces modernity, freedom and choice
What did Bauman argue?
With greater uncertainty, people stick with fundamentalism due to itâs claim of certainty and absolute truth during an era of post modernism and unpredictability.
What did Castells argue?
Resistance Identity - Defensive reaction of those who feel threatened and retreat into functionalist communities
Project Identity - Forward-looking, engaging with social movements such as feminism
What did Ansell argue?
France banning girls from wearing veils in public in 2010 and banning pork alternatives in school in 2015 is cultural racism disguised as freedom and promoting social solidarity and universal equality.
What did Huntington argue?
Religious differences between civilisations are a major source of conflict, known as the âClash of Civilisationsâ. These religious differences are creating hostile relationships which are difficult to resolve, and sees the West as coming under threat from Islam, seeing history as the struggle of âprogress against barbarismâ
What did Casanova argue?
Criticises Huntington for ignoring divisions within civilisations such as Islam.
What did Jackson argue?
Sees Huntingtonâs work as orientalism, justifying exploitation of the west and seeing Muslims as untrustworthy
What did Horrie and Chippindale argue?
The clash of civilisations is a grossly misleading idea, portraying the whole of Islam as an âenemyâ
What did Wallis argue?
Churches and Sects claim their interpretation of the faith is the only correct one. Denominations and cults accept that there can be many valid interpretations
Churches and denominations are seen as respectable and legitimate, whereas sects and cults are seen as deviant
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