These notes cover the different definitions of religion as well as the theories such functionalism, marxism, feminism etc. It also includes sociologists required from the specification
SUBSTANTIVE DEFINITION - to be a religion, a set of beliefs must include belief in Gd or in the
supernatural
● Weber supports this view as a belief in superior or supernatural power that is above nature and
cannot be explained by science
FUNCTIONAL DEFINITIONS - social or psychological function it performs for individuals or
society
● Emile Durkheim defines religion in the terms of the contribution it makes to social integration
rather than any specific belief in Gd or the supernatural
● Milton Yinger identifies function of religion performs for individuals such as answering the
'ultimate question' about meaning of life and what happens after we die
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST DEFINITIONS - focuses on how members of society themselves
define religions. It's not possible to have one definition as individuals mean different things by
'religion'
● Alan Aldridge shows for its followers, scientology is a religion, whereas several governments
have denied it legal status as a religion and called it a cult and sought to ban it
Evaluations -
key = positive - negative
SUBSTANTIVE = too exclusive and has western bias as it excludes religions such as buddhism.
Defining religion in this way leaves no room for beliefs and practices that perform similar
functions to religion but do not involve belief in G-D
FUNCTIONAL = allows us to include a wide range of beliefs and practices that perform
functions such as integration. By not specifying belief in G-D there is no bias against non-
western religions such as buddhism. But just because something integrates individuals, it does
not make it a religion e.g. chanting at a football match gives individuals a sense of integration
but that does not mean its a religion
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST = does not assume that religion always involves a belief in G-
D or the supernatural or that it performs similar functions for everyone in all societies. Allows us
to get close to the meanings people themselves give to religion but makes it impossible to
generalise about the nature of religion since people may have widely differing views about what
counts as religion
, Buddhism - non-theistic religion that does not believe in G-ds. It focuses on the teachings of
Gautama Buddha (personal spiritual development) and has around 535 million followers globally
Christianity - monotheistic religion centred on the teachings of jesus christ. It is the largest
religion in the world with around one third of the population identifying as christian, including
both roman catholic and protestant traditions
Hinduism - belief in one supreme spirit, Braham, who manifests in various god like forms. It is
one of the worlds oldest religions with 1 billion followers - 14% of global population
Islam - monotheistic religion that believes in one G-D, Allah, who's teachings were received
through the prophet Muhammad. Has about 1.6 billion followers - Sunni and Shia muslims
Judaism - monotheistic religion that believes G-D chose the jewish people to set an example of
holiness and ethical behaviour of the world. There are around 16 million jews worldwide
Ideology and Religion
ideology - a set of ideas ad values shared by a social group
Religion is an ideology, however it is not necessarily tied to a particular social group
Giddens (2006):
Religion involves 'shared beliefs and rituals that provide a sense of ultimate meaning and
purpose by creating an idea of reality that is sacred, all encompassing and supernatural'
3 things that he believes -
1. beliefs in the spiritual and supernatural
a person, entity or other force or being of some kind, which ultimately provides a sense of
meanings and interpretation of the world
2. faith of the part of the believers
a strong sense of trust and conviction in a person or entity, which is not based on observable,
testable or falsifiable evidence
3. a body of unchanging truth
religions usually contains certain fundamental and unchangeable beliefs, like christ being the son
of G-D or Mohammed being Allah's prophet and new discoveries are fitted into these existing
frameworks
RELIGION - it is known as a closed belief system, They assert an all-embracing and unchanging
set of beliefs and make claims that cannot be disproved or overturned abd anything that seems to
challenge these beliefs is dismissed or fitted into the existing belief system. It relies on faith
rather than empirical evidence
SCIENCE - it is an open belief system. This means that scientific research is open to scrutiny,
questioning, criticism and testing by others. Scientific is liable to change as a result to these
processes
4 types of ideology:
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