Jan 2012 socio past paper
Q1.
Three reasons why members of minority ethnic groups may seem to be more religious than the majority of the population is as follows. Firstly, they may follow religions than are not declining in popularity like Sikhism and Islam whereas Christianity in certain countries is on the decline. Secondly, if they are immigrating to a new country, they may use religion as a cultural defence and so will become more religious. Finally their culture that they come from may use religion as an integral part of socialisation and so they will carry on practising it when the reach new places.
Q2.
Religious organisations have been around since the first civilizations, they have been integral to do the development of the human race and modern day society. In the current day, many researchers and sociologists believe that people have stopped becoming lifelong members of these organisations, in this essay I am going to assess this view and find out if it’s true.
There is arguments on both sides regarding the extent to which secularisation (decline of religion) is present in the world today, some believe it is associated with the modern day societies. Modernists feel the same way seeing our societies as focusing more on developments into science and rational research. Because of this, many sociologists see religion as being “incompatible” with our societies.
The sociologists Weber (1905), sees humanity as becoming disenchanted (preferring scientific explanations over religion). As we are seeing through the previously held mystique of the world, we do not need religion to give us answers. In 2002, Bruce expanded upon Weber’s claims arguing that the growth of modern technologies has also led to the decline of “religious influence” within society and its unlikely religious popularity will return.
Not all people agree with this view however, Norris and