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CHAPTER 14
Religion
Chapter Outline
Religion, Science, and Sociology
 Theoretical Perspectives
 Religion: Structure and Practice
 Religion in the United States
 World Religions

Religion and Science

Can religion and science coexist?
 Because religion involves matters beyond
human observation and because science is all
about observation, these two institutions can
potentially conflict.
Religion and Sociology


Religion – a unified system of beliefs and
practices about sacred things found in nearly all
societies.
 Sacred – entities that are set apart and given a
special meaning that transcends immediate
human existence.
 Profane – nonsacred aspects of life (not
referring to that which is unholy, but that which is
commonplace.
Transcendent reality – a set of meanings
attached to a world beyond human observation.
Functionalism and Religion

Based on Durkheim’s belief that the essential function
of religion was to provide a mirror for members of
society to see themselves, through sacred symbols,
sociologists identified the following functions of
religion:
1. Legitimates social arrangements
2. Encourage a sense of social unity
3. Provides a sense of meaning
4. Promote a sense of belonging
Functionalism and Religion
1.
Legitimate social arrangements
 Legitimation justifies and explains the status
quo.
 Through this process of explaining why society
is or should be the way it is, there is a
justification of social arrangements that exist.
Functionalism and Religion
2.
Encourages social unity
 Religion
is a glue that holds society together.
 Without religion society would be chaotic.
Functionalism and Religion
3.
Provides a sense of meaning.
 Religion
provides a meaning for people that
transcends their day-to-day life.
 Religious ceremonies are used to give believers
a cosmic significance and eternal significance to
an uncertain earthly existence.
Functionalism and Religion
4.
Promote a sense of belonging.
 Opportunities
are provided for people to share
commonalities: ideas, a way of life, an ethnic
background.
 Membership may provide a sense of community.
Conflict Theory and Religion


Marx believed that once people create a unified
system of sacred beliefs and practices, they act as
if it were something beyond their control.
They become “alienated” from the religious system
they set up.
Conflict Theory and Religion

The ruling class uses religion to justify its
economic, political, and social advantage over the
oppressed.

Marx thought of religion as a narcotic for the
oppressed: It is the opium of the people.
Capitalism and the Protestant Ethic

Weber believed that religion sometimes
encourages social change.

Capitalism involved a radical redefinition of work, it
became a moral obligation rather than a necessity.
Capitalism and the Protestant Ethic

Weber referred to the cluster of values and
attitudes stressing hard work, thrift, and discipline
as the Protestant ethic.

Weber found the roots of the Protestant ethic in the
17th century Puritan theology of Calvinism – a
person’s fate was predetermined by God.
Capitalism and the Protestant Ethic

Protestants endorsed the idea that salvation came
from unselfish good works here on earth.
Therefore they were encouraged to do more and
more work for less.
Gender and Religion

Less visible forms of conflict are generated by the
efforts of religious elites to maintain control over
an entire society or subgroups within a society.
 An important instance is male domination of
women that exists in most of the world’s major
religions.
Symbolic Interactionism and Religion

Peter Berger (The Sacred Canopy, 1990):
 humans create from their religious traditions a
canopy, or cover, of symbolic meanings to lay
over the secular world
 a canopy of religious beliefs, rituals, and ideas
provides stability and security in a changing and
uncertain existence.
Focus on Theoretical Perspectives:
Religion
Questions for Consideration
How does religion serve as a force of social
control in any society?
 How has the function of religion changed?
 Has the role of women changed in religion?
 What challenges do religions face?

Religion: Structure and Practice:
Religious Organizations

The rarest type of religious organization today is
the ecclesia, a state religion either headed by
religious leaders or heavily influenced by a
religious elite.
Religion: Structure and Practice:
Religious Organizations

Under this type of religious organization there is no
separation between church and state.

Since there is no separation between church and
state, there is no separation between citizenship
and church membership.

Everyone born into the country is automatically a
member of the church.
Religion: Structure and Practice:
Religious Organizations

A denomination is one of several religious
organizations that most members of a society
accept as legitimate.
Religion: Structure and Practice:
Religious Organizations
 Because
denominations are not tied to the state,
membership in them is voluntary, and
competition among them for members is socially
acceptable.
 Most
American “churches”— Methodist,
Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist, Roman
Catholic, Reformed Jewish—are actually
denominations.
Religion: Structure and Practice:
Religious Organizations

A sect is a religious organization formed when
members of an existing religious organization
break away in an attempt to reform the “parent”
group.
 Sect
members believe that some valuable
beliefs or traditions were lost by the parent
organization, and they form their own group to
save these features.
Religion: Structure and Practice:
Religious Organizations

A cult, by contrast, is a religious organization
whose characteristics are not drawn from existing
religious traditions within a society.
Religion: Structure and Practice:
Religious Organizations
Although the term cult covers a wide range of groups
and organizations
The religious cults in the United States today share
several characteristics:
 an authoritarian structure,
 rejection of the secular world’s laws and ways, strict
discipline of adherents,
 rigidity in thinking,
 conviction of sole possession of truth and wisdom,
 belief in the group’s moral superiority, and
discouragement of individualism.

Religiosity

1.
2.
Religiosity – ways in which people express their
religious interests and convictions.
Belief – refers to what a person considers to be
true.
Ritual – a religious practice that members of a
religion are expected to perform; public or
private.
Religiosity
3.
4.
5.
Intellectual – involves knowledge of the Bible or
other written teaching; human existence as evil,
suffering and death. Informed about their faith.
Experience – encompasses certain feelings
attached to religious expression.
Consequences – the decisions and commitments
people make as a result of religious beliefs, rituals,
knowledge, or experiences. Consequences may
be social or personal.
Importance of Religion in One’s Life
Religion in the U.S.

Although the search for religious freedom was only
one of the reasons the Puritans came to America,
there was a genuine religious element in the
American colonization and revolution.
Secularization

Secularization – a profane process through which
the sacred loses influence over society.
 Through
this process, other social institutions
are emptied of religious content and freed from
religious control.
 Religion
itself becomes a specialized, isolated
institution.
Wealth and Religiosity
Percentage of American Saying Religion is
Very Important in Their Lives: 1952-2010
Secularization

Evidence is mixed concerning the relative
importance of religion in the United States today.

The percentage of Americans claiming that religion
is very important in their lives declined from 75
percent in 1952 to 56 percent in 2010.
Secularization


The religiously unaffiliated are now the country’s
third largest “religious group.”
Young adults between eighteen and twenty-nine
are much more likely than those seventy or over to
indicate a lack of affiliation with any particular
religion (29 percent versus 7 percent.
Global Comparison of Church
Attendance
Membership in Selected Religious
Organizations in the United States
Questions for Consideration

Do you think the percentage will continue to
rise, or will it decline again? Why?

What do you think may explain the decrease
in reported religious importance?
Civil Religion & Invisible Religion


Civil religion – a public religion that expresses a
strong tie between a deity and a culture; it is broad
enough to encompass almost the entire nation.
Invisible religion – a private religion that is
substituted for formal religious organizations,
practices, and beliefs.
The Resurgence of Fundamentalism


Fundamentalism – is based on the rejection of
secularization and the corresponding close
adherence to traditional beliefs, rituals, and
doctrines.
Two issues disturbed the early fundamentalists.
1.
2.
First, fundamentalists were concerned about the
spread of secularism.
Second, fundamentalists rejected the movement away
from the traditional message of Christianity toward an
accent on social service.
The Resurgence of Fundamentalism
Why has fundamentalism reappeared?
1.
Many Americans feel their world is out of control.
2.
By placing emphasis on warmth, love, and caring,
fundamentalist churches provide solace to people
who are witnessing and experiencing the
weakening of family and community ties.
3.
Fundamentalist churches offer what they consider
a more purely sacred environment
Religious Movements in the U.S.
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Raelians – proclaimed their successful
attempt to clone the first human being.
The Unification Church – adherents are
generally referred to as Moonies; combination of
Protestantism and anticommunism
Scientology – a spiritual therapy inspired by the
late science fiction writer Hubbard who
discovered therapy and technique of Dianetics.
Neo-Pagans are characterized as natureworshippers.
Four seductive features of religious
cults
1.
Most of the cult converts are looking for friendship,
companionship, acceptance, warmth, and recognition.
2.
Most of the Eastern religious cults emphasize immediate
experience and emotional gratification rather than
deliberation and rational argument.
3.
Eastern religious cults emphasize authority.
4.
These cults purport to offer authenticity and naturalness in
an otherwise artificial world.
Social Correlates of Religion

Social class and politics are two important social
correlates of religious preference.

85% of Americans profess some religious affiliation.

Although there are over 300 denominations and sects
in the U.S., about half of Americans are Protestant.
Self-Identification by Religious
Tradition
Social Class and Religion

Generally speaking, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and
Jews are on the top of the stratification structure.

Below them are Lutherans, Catholics, and Methodists.

When measured by education and income, Baptists, on the
average, come out the lowest.

The social class differences are due partly to self-selection:
People tend to prefer churches with members who have
socioeconomic characteristics similar to their own.
Politics and Religion

Followers of the Jewish faith are particularly aligned with
the Democratic Party;

they are followed in strength of support by the religiously
unaffiliated, Catholics and Protestants.

Protestants generally are more politically conservative than
the unaffiliated, Catholics, or Jews, and the Democratic
Party is not associated with political conservatism.
World Religions

There are three major Western religions: Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam.

The two major Eastern religions are Hinduism and
Buddhism.

The contrast between Eastern and Western religions
primarily revolves around the practice of polytheism or
monotheism rather than by physical location.
Eastern Religions: Hinduism

Hinduism, the oldest of the religions covered here,
originated over 2,000 years ago in India.

Hinduism is unique among the five religions in not
having a specific founder associated with it.
Rather, Hinduism comes from an ancient oral
tradition not committed to writing until the Middle
Ages.
Eastern Religions: Hinduism

Rather than believing in a single god, polytheistic
Hindus are free to choose which of the myriad of
divine beings they prefer to worship; and they may
choose different deities at different times in their
lives.

Karma is the term by which we know this belief.

There are about 780 million Hindus today. Nearly
all Hindus live in South Asia, particularly India,
whose population is 80 percent Hindu.
Eastern Religions: Buddhism

Buddhism originated in sixth-century B.C.E. India
as an alternative interpretation of Hinduism. Its
founder, Siddhartha Gautama, lived between 560
and 480 B.C.E.

Buddha followers were to avoid lying, stealing, and
killing, as well as the worldly pleasures of improper
sex and intoxicating substances. These
prohibitions formed the five basic rules of ethical
living.
Eastern Religions: Buddhism

Enlightenment is a state individually attained
rather than one received as a gift from the deities.
Enlightenment, achieved through intense
meditation and good deeds, brings release from
this cycle (nirvana).

Buddhists, numbering approximately 360 million,
are concentrated in the Far East and Southeast
Asia.
Western Religions: Judaism


Upon giving the Ten Commandments to Moses,
the clan God became the single God
(monotheism) of the Israelites, and Judaism
became an established religion.
Judaism is a religion of God’s law as expressed in
the Scripture (Torah).
Western Religions: Judaism

Certain practices, such as dietary restrictions,
observance of Sabbath, and religious holidays are,
however, binding in traditional Judaism.

There are about 17 million followers of Judaism, 5
million of whom reside in Israel.

The remainder is found mainly in Eastern Europe
and the United States. In fact, 80 percent of the
world’s Jews are in the United States and Israel.
Western Religions: Christianity

Similarities between Christianity and Judaism:
both religions are monotheistic, worship the same
God, and trace their ancestry to Abraham, a
Jewish patriarch, share the Old Testament
scripture.

The fundamental division between early Christians
and Jews is traced to the founder of Christianity.
Western Religions: Christianity


While the Jews expected the appearance of a
messiah (savior), they did not believe him to be
Jesus, the messiah recognized by Christians.
Christianity is the world’s largest and most diverse
religion: with more than 2 billion followers.
Western Religions: Islam

Islam shares its Abrahamic origin with Jews and
Christians.

Islam is monotheistic, and founded by the Prophet
Muhammad who received his first revelation from
God in 610 C.E.

The final word of God is contained in the Koran,
scripture revealed to Muhammad over his lifetime.
Western Religions: Islam

All Muslims subscribe to the Five Pillars of Islam:
a declaration of faith,
 accepting the authenticity of Muhammad as God’s
Prophet
 implicitly, the validity of the Koran, a commitment to pray
five times each day,
 charity,
 to keep the fast of Ramadan,
 and a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia at least once
in a lifetime.

Western Religions: Islam

Today, there are about 1.6 billion Muslims,
representing 24 percent of the world’s population.

Islam is the state religion of twenty-five nations.
Muslims are concentrated in the Middle East, the
rest of Asia and Africa.