Religion & Power

Scientific Exploration of Religion 1/16

Thomas Theorem

• “If men define situtions as real, they are real in their consequences.”

• W.I. Thomas

• Religion is something that people experience w/o having knowledge of 

The Sociological Imagination

• “The ability to view our society as an outsider might, rather than relying only on our individual perspective, shaped by our cultural biases”

• C.W. Mills

• Own perspective

• Social forces in addition to individual forces: actively contended with

• Religion is a semi-involuntary activity-> can be born into it, can choose to practice it at all, some choice, will still impact your life in society 

Individualism VS sociological explanations

• Western (american) perspectives focus more on the individual

• Individualistic 

• Personal choices and experiences

Religious Landscape Today

• Protestants vs catholics 

• Protestants were the biggest change 

• Family, politics, technology 

Evangelical Christians

• Emphasize spreading the word: the good news

• Baptists, southern baptists

• Religion is supernatural 

• Arent concerning themselves with rituals

• “Born again” 

• Baptism and rebaptism

4 pillars of sociology

• Social stratification: who gets what?

• Social Control: who can do what to whom?

• Social Conflict: who fights who and how?

• Social Change: when/how will things change?

How we think of religion?

• Individual behavior

• Values, beliefs and practices

• Groups

• Congregations, gatherings,etc

• Illegal to ask people their religious identity

• Social forces 

• Social institution

• Structured social relationships BETWEEN

• Religion and other social institutions like government, family, education, economics

• Gender issues in schools

• Religion is the dynamic interaction of all 3 levels

• We ask how does religion influence society and how does society influence religion

• Example: religion and homosexuality

The Big 3 Sociological Paradigms

• Structural functionalism

• Change affects one, change affects all

• Interconnected and work together 

• Specific purposes and specific function 

• To maintain the function of societal maintnance at the status quoe

• Consensus

• Critical/Conflict Theories

• Competition between groups 

• Big subgroups 

• Power differences among big social groups 

• Macro level orientation 

• Symbolic interactionist 

• Reality is learned from others

• Operate from a subjective reality

• Government and religion and education

• Constuct it in our interactions 

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What exactly do we mean by religion? (Religion, Religious, Religions Reading)

• How do we even talk about it?

• Religion doesnt have a native category

• Doesnt exist on its own

• No place in any of our institutions where religion exists in an objective form 

• Only existed in historical context and comparison

• Religion as we understand it has followed exploration

• Hethens: dont seem to know god like we know god

• Difference of us vs the hethens turns into a hierarchy 

• The distinction becomes a difference with a purpose

• Primitive, godless, pagans, inferiority

• World religions VS native religions

• Native: animism, polytheism

• World religion: monotheistic, located in empire, christianity is a world religion

• Definitions are shifting 

Objectivity

• Understanding beyond opinion, politics or other values

Methodolocial empiricism

• Utilizing data and information that is observable through senses 

• Turn into information and something we can count

Describe and to generalize about common patterns and correlations between religious groups

• We never PROVE anything 

Substantive Definitions

• Content- substance- of religion or religious belief.

• What religion is

• Dealing with escence 

• Draw a line between the religious and the non religious

• Feel bad about it if you dont do it-> going to the gym for example

• There's beliefs, emotions, symbols 

• Tend to identify a belief in a superior or supernatural power that is above nature and cannot be explained scientifically  (max weber)

• Emile Durkheim “ a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, thaty is tyo say, things set apart and forbidden- beliefs and practices which unite into a single moral community called a church (crime and devience)

• Can't call it a religion if everone believes in something different

• Sometimes what's missing is the belief itself 

Religion is…. Belief

• Belief in spiritual beings

• Belief in god

• Belief in beings that are not encountered in normal empirical processes

Religion is… behavior

• Rites, rituals, and practices 

Religion is communal

• Religion is a group activity

• There is no religion of one 

Criticism emphasizes traditional forms of religion…

• Durkheim’s Definition

• Unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things

• SACRED: elements beyond everyday life that inspire awe, respect, and fear

• Surrounded by taboos and prohibitions

• PROFANE: the mundane

The totemic principle: totem pole

• There are things that come to represent not just the community but the supernatural

• Sacred trees, mountains, forests, etc

• We embesk them in power 

• Those things become social facts

• This becomes sacred because

• Things that are sacred and profane CANNOT overlap & CANNOT be both

Functional Definitions

• Define the social or psychological function it performs for individuals or society

• What religion does 

Yinger: 

• A system of beliefs and practices by means of which a groups of people struggle with the ultimate problems of human life

• Ultimate concerns

• Relate people to the ultimate conditions of their existence

• Goals and purpose in this definition

• Permanent problems of human existence 

Eschatological Problems

• The study of the ultimate concerns

• Big questions

• 1. Where do we come from?

• 2. Why are we here?

• 3. What happens when we die?

More social phenomena can be regarded as religious

• Secular humanism, extreme nationalism, cults of personality

Characteristics of the cults of personality

• 5 characteristics of modern cults of personality

• Male

• Secular and anchored in popular sovereignty

• Rooted in the will of the people

• My power comes from what people want 

• Target the approval of the whole population, not just elites 

• Extensive use of mass media

• Exist where mass media can be controlled to diminish rivals

• Civil religion: Bellah, we were no longer looking for technological experise, looking for more technicrats 

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Symbolic definitions:

• Religion is a collection of symbols representative of specific worldview and prescriptions for behavior 

• Interactions and reality

• Anything that creates symbolic action and symbolic things tells us how we shape our reality

Macro-symbols

• Those that represent a distinct worldview and invoke deep feelings and motivate behavior

Micro symbols

• The small everyday symbols that are utilized in mundane communication 

Robert Bellah: “Civil Religion in America”

• The institutionalized collection of sacred beliefs about the american nation, providing cohesion through national times of crisis

• American= religious/broadly christian

• Deist: belief in a god of somesort 

• Religious and political legitimacy is established

• Biblical and american archetypes

• Big argument: society itself becomes religion

• Civil religion is better at uniting a society than individual private faith 

Propositions

• Create a series of symbols that let people know who they are and what they are doing as americans to answer the questions of why anything 

• Youre americaness helps you struggle with those ultimate concerns 

• Structurally differential from both the political community and the religious community

• Performs specialized religious functions performed neither church nor state

• The differentiation of american civil religion from political and religious communties follows the general direction of culture

14 points of civil religion

• Fillial piety: respect elders and parents, memorial days

• Reverence to certain sacred texts and symbols

• The sanctity of american institutions 

• The belief in god or a deity

• Belief that rights are divinely given

• Freedom comes from god through government

• Government authority comes from god

• God can be known/seen through the american experience

• God is the supreme judge

• God is sovereign

• Americas prosperity is god given 

• America is exceptionally righteous and good

• The truth of sacrificial death and rebirth

• America serves a higher purpose than self interest

“Why is there suffering in america?”

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Structural functionalism Reviewed

• Emphasizes the interconnectedness of societal institutions

• Religion helps society maintain stability by providing a source of social and cultural stability

• Establishes social norms and mores

• Provides motivations and authority to enforce moral codes

• Stability is the goal and conflict is a symptom of societal dysfunction

• Collective consious

Durkheim and the function of religion

• “The elementary forms of religious life”

• The god of the clan, the totemic principle, can therefore be notyhing else than the clan itself, personified and represented to the imagination under the visible form

Implies societies need to reaffirm itself

• Creates ideal of what it is and wants

• Nests those ideals and needs in the deity

• Religion is society worshipping itself

Collective effervescence-> apply to people: bubbling, enthusiasm

• A shared emotional experience during communal rituals or ceremonies that reinforces group solidarity and creates a sense of the sacred

• Rituals are central to religion because they maintain the distinction between the sacred and the profane

• Reinforce group cohesion

• Affirm collective values

• Allow individuals to participate in something transcendent

Images of God

• Froese and Bader

• 4 images of god

• Authoritative god: expectations and follow them 

• Benevolent God: highly engaged but less judgmental, loving, caring

• Critical God: less engaged but highly judgemental, god watching from a distance

• Distant God: idea that god set things in motion and is uninvolved in what's going on

God correlates with their views on morality, politics, and social issues

• Those with an authoritive god image tend to have conservative political and moral attitudes, while those with a benevolent god are more likely to emphasize social justice and inclusivity

• Individual characteristics like education, gender, religion and religious tradition influence which image of god a person holds

3 major points

2 unanswered questions you have 

1 current event application 

3)

• The family gets to choose which god they believe in, although there are many in the Indian cultures.

• A virgin has more power than a non virgin in Indian cultures, any sound revokes the godess, syllables or rhythms. There is a single divine energy that they tap in to 

• 4 billion muslims, christians, and jews worship the same single god 

2)

• How do people ultimately pick which god they want to follow/believe in, what are the factors that help them choose/what's the deciding factor

• Why do we have this idea that human life is not something one sacrifices for the gods like it used to be said

Readings for 2/4

Religion, Social Networks, and Life Satisfaction

• positive relationship between religion and life satisfaction is largely due to the social networks 

• Non-religious people who are involved in other social networks or community groups can experience similar boosts in life satisfaction.

• social support and community in promoting well-being

• Psychological well-being 

• Religious disposition and religious behaviors

• The faith matters study

• Scriptual inerrancy-> means the same thing as biblical perfection/literalism/ ideas that the scriptures are perfect/faith based denominations/measure

• Supernatural punishment hypothesis: going to hell-> deterence theory

• Studying cheating behaviors for students 

"Mean Gods Make Good People:

• People who believe in a punitive, vengeful, or judgmental God are less likely to engage in cheating or dishonest behavior.

• the perception of unconditional forgiveness might reduce the fear of consequences.

• Moral Behavior Influenced by Supernatural Monitoring: 

2/6

• Folly from the reading: its absurdly wrong, wrong from head to toe and its ridiculous to believe that it was ever correct

• Primary anxiety: heaven/hell reward/punishment-> concerns that people have in their head because of religious beliefs about rewards and punishments

• Secondary anxieties:  concerns we have about other people in our religious communities: being judged, ostrasized, not performing religion well

• Both anieties stem from each other: primary anxiety stems from secondary anxiety

• This lets us think about religion in a different way, social facts

• Psychological well being-> from social networks-> happening in secondary anxieties 

• Birds of a feather 

• Deviance: unites, boundaries, adaptation

• Religion is designed to produce conflict

• Societal function and operates at different levels 

• What does it do if you are a believer?