Parsons: Values and Meaning• Parsons sees religion helping individuals to cope with unforeseen events and uncontrollable outcomes. He identifies two other essential functions that religion performs in modern society. • It creates and legitimates society’s central values. This is done my sacralising them. In the USA, Protestantism has sacralised the core American values of individualism, meritocracy and self-discipline. This serves to promote consensus and social stability. • It is the primary
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the view that the main function of religious belief is to promote social stability (33 marks). One way that religious belief promotes social stability can be through Durkheim’s idea of totemism and what is considered sacred and profane in society. Durkheim made a significant distinction between what is sacred and profane in society; sacred referred to the things in society that inspired feelings of awe and fear, whereas profane referred to the things in society that held no special meaning
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TOPIC 1 – THEORIES OF RELIGION 3 WAYS sociologists define religion Substantive, functional and social constructionists SUBSTANTIVE- focus on the content of religious belief such as belief in God or the supernatural (MAX WEBBER) defines religion as belief in the superior or supernatural power that is above nature and cannot be explained scientifically. Advantage- conform to a widespread views of religion as belief in God Disadvantage- defining religion in this way leaves no room for beliefs and
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Defining Religion Defining & measuring religion is very hard. Religion can be so personal that it's impossible to express and to quantifiably measure There tends to be 2 ways: Substance - trying to get what the essence of religion is Function - what religion does in society Inclusivist & exclusivist o Inclusivist definitions take a broad view of what constitutes 'religion'. They could include [political movements, social movements and organisation etc. as long as they
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in understanding religion theory Functionalist believe that religion is good for society as they believe it creates value consensus in which is a set of shared norm and values that society cannot live without. Functionalists believe that religion plays an important part in creating and maintain social solidarity and order as well as value consensus. They take on the consensus view. The first functionalist to put forward his view on religion was Durkheim who believed that religion was the origin
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of religion. (18m) Functionalism is a modern structualist theory based on consensus and shared norms + values, and they put forward the human body analogy to explain how society works as the human body analogy views institutions such as school and work as organs of the body and if one should fail the whole body representing society will be affected as a state of anomie would occur and so society would breakdown due to a state of normlessness but, should all the organs continue to function correctly
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extent is religion a Conservative Force? (33) Religion could be seen as a Conservative Force from different perspectives such as: Functionalism, Marxism and Feminism. However, other perspectives disagree with this and see religion as a Force for Social Change. There are different ways in which sociologists define religion. There is a substantive definition, and functional definition and a social constructionist definition. Substantive definitions focus on the content or substance of religion belief
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of the universe, which incorporates their beliefs, writings, behaviors, and rituals. They are led by their own faith or personal belief rather than science. Social, economic, political, and spiritual beliefs are all influenced if not dominated by religion. Christianity, Islamic, Judaism, Hinduism, and Roman Catholic’s all bring people together for some form of social interactions with one another, whether it be in a worship service, belief or ritual, or any other religious act that may require interaction
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Religion is one of the oldest institutions on Earth, and is therefore of key cultural and historical importance to a large group of people. However the real question is whether religion serves to benefit both the individual and society in this ever evolving postmodern world. One perspective that suggests that religion does serve to benefit both the individual and society as a whole is Functionalism, which believes that religion maintains value consensus by creating social solidarity and keeping social
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Socialists define religion in four ways, first by identifying whether there is a belief in some kind of super natural power, second if there is an expression of belief through collective worship. Sociologists also define religion by identifying if there is a presence of a force which unifies society, and if there are a set of morals which guide behavior. There are also substantive definitions of religion, these define religion by suggesting there has to be a belief in the supernatural, a being with
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