The Variations in Religious Beliefs in the British Isles Today
As Item A indicates there are considerable regional variations in
religious beliefs within the British Isles and between Great Britain
and the Irish Republic.
It has long been the case for example that church attendance in
N.Ireland has been much higher than other regions of the U.K. -
particularly England. This could be explained partially due to the
significance of fundamentalism and fundamentalist denominations (eg.
Free Presbyterian, Baptist etc.) in N.Ireland - which promote a
literal interpretation of the Bible and are strongly opposed to
liberal theological trends.
The influence of fundamentalist beliefs is particularly evident in the
table in relation to the variation between G.B. and both parts of
Ireland - with regard to literal 'truths' such as belief in : Life
after death; Heaven; Hell; the Devil; Miracles - with much higher
percentages believing in such concepts in N.Ireland and Irish Republic
than in Great Britain.
Of course we should be cautious about any statistical measures of
religious beliefs - since religion is such an intensely individual
phenomenon and therefore difficult to quantify.
One could for example be cynical about the very high percentage
claiming to believe in God in N.Ireland according to the table. Given
the religious bigotry and sectarianism that exists in the Province
there would appear to a large discrepancy between expressed religious
belief and the practise of that Christianity (in terms of tolerance,
good neighbourliness etc.).
What the table does not show of course are social variations - such as
gender differen...
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...onclusion then we can say that sociological accounts of the role
and functions of religious institutions and movements in contemporary
society have, of necessity had to be modified to take into account the
many changes which religion is undergoing in the twenty-first century.
Traditional Functionalist theories emphasising the cohesive function
of religion are as outdated as classical Marxist perspectives
portraying religion as the ally of the ruling classes and a means of
oppressing the working-class.
Clearly society has moved on and the certainty of early, deterministic
perspectives of religion (namely functionalist and Marxist) have been
challenged by the apparent variety in contemporary social life -
including the extent to which individualism and diversity is
presenting a challenge to sociological Grand theory.
To begin with, it must be remembered that Catholic culture and Catholic faith, while mutually supportive and symbiotic, are not the same thing. Mr. Walker Percy, in his Lost in the Cosmos, explored the difference, and pointed out that, culturally, Catholics in Cleveland are much more Protestant than Presbyterians in say, Taos, New Orleans, or the South of France. Erik, Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, points out that the effects of this dichotomy upon politics, attributing the multi-party system in Catholic countries to the Catholic adherence to absolutes; he further ascribes the two-party system to the Protestant willingness to compromise. However this may be, it does point up a constant element in Catholic thought---the pursuit of the absolute.
The groom and best man are next to arrive at the church at least 30
A high stress is placed on morals, beliefs and one’s religion which is fine but that starts to leak into the cracks of the democracy component associated with UK’s governing system. Another point to draw is what differentiates “other principal religions represented in Great Britain” from the almost bolded religion of Christianity. As a result, students are breed to be more uniformed. After a religious education, one will be able to give an opinionated justification of whether or not there is a God, whether or not the legalization of drugs should take place, whether abortion is moral for women (Strhan Pg.
Between 1947 and 1971, even if you did not practice your religion it was still expected that you would identify yourself as being a part of your/ your family’s religion. In 1947 the ‘no religion’ category made up only 0.3% of religious affiliation in Australia. A change in social values and attitudes has since seen a dramatic increase in people identifying as belonging to ‘no religion’ with the category reaching 6.7% in 1971, “The specific instruction 'if no religion, write none' included in the 1971 Census saw an increase in this response from 0.8% in the previous Census to 6.7%.”(Australian Social Trends, 2013). The chart below is a visual representation of the growth in the ‘no religion’ category.(sourced from Australian Social Trends, 2013).
The Variety of Religious Programs on British Television When television broadcasting began every channel had to broadcast a religious programme. This was normally on a Sunday between 10.30am-12pm (or 6-7pm). Church services and hymn singing was usually showed, which is now known as worship programmes (as they feature some sort of worship). The times that these programmes were on was called the 'God slot' - which means; the time dedicated to religious programmes. These programmes were all regarding the Christian faith, due to the majority of Christians in the country.
The secularization paradigm Bruce argues ‘is a set of associated explanations rather than a single theory’ (Pg.43). To build on this argument Bruce provides us with a diagram of the secularization paradigm with 22 key contributing factors; some showing the religiosity of societies i.e. the protestant reformation and monotheism, some exploring other factors which have contributed towards secularization such as Industrial Capitalism, Technological Consciousness and Social Differentiation and he provides an explanation of these concepts in order to provide the reader with an analysis of these themes. This can however be problematic in the sense that the terminology of the paradigm may well be understood by individuals studying or in the field of sociology but for individuals who are looking to develop their knowledge on the debate of secularization and religion can make this difficult. Bruce argues that modernization is one of the main causes of secularization. ‘‘Modernization brought with it increased cultural diversity in three different ways. First populations moved and brought their language, religion and social mores with them in a new setting. Secondly, the expansion of the increasingly expansive nation state meant that new groups were brought into the state. But thirdly…modernization created cultural pluralism through the proliferation of classes and class fragmentation with increasingly diverse
Modern Britain as a Secular Society Modern Britain is a secular society . To what extent do sociological
As Huntington said, Anglo-Protestant culture is founded in hard work and moralism. It is hard to deny the strong notions of Anglo-Protestant ideas in American culture. Americans are, despite the stereotype of being lazy, hard workers. Studies have shown that Americans not only have the longest work day, but they also, take the lest vacation days and retire late. Furthermore, Americans care about morals and the morals of their leaders in ways that other developed counties seem indifferent. According to pew research, more than half of Americans would be less likely to vote for an Atheist president, whereas, there are a number of Atheist leaders in Europe. It is clear how Anglo-Protestant ideas are strong in American culture. The American creed
Sociological theorist have provided two broad insights as to what exactly the sociology of religion can refer to. One concept acknowledges that “the nature of religion is part of a human condition” (pg 652) while the other concept is an applied school that focuses more on the statistics of who populated the religion and is concerned more about more technical details such as age, gender and social class and how “these interacted with the host of social, social psychological and sociopolitical outcomes in societies” (pg 652). Despite the two approaches of studying religions most theorists took the applied route or did observational work at the beginning of their careers.
established church could be defined as post-Christian (ibid). Therefore, countries like Denmark and The United Kingdom can be described as post-Christian meaning that the majority of the population in these countries used to, but no longer identify as being Christian. Furthermore, I echo Paas’ (2011:10) important distinction that a post-Christian society is not a synonym for a secular society. This is because a country may be secular, but not necessarily post-Christian or even non-religious. Habermas et al (2008:21) takes the position that in a post-secular society, religion still maintains a public influence and relevance, whilst the secularisation thesis assumption that religion will disappear through modernisation is tentative. Post-Christian societies describe a particular era of the secularisation process and thus could be applied to the United Kingdom where non-religion is rapidly increasing and Christianity is changing. Secularisation is understood here as a de-institutionalisation. However, other societies and countries like Estonia that are further in the process of secularisation and as such would not be considered a Christian country may not be best fitted.
Religious Fundamentalism is not a modern phenomenon, although, it has received a rise in the late twentieth century. It occurs differently in different parts of the world but arises in societies that are deeply troubled or going through a crisis (Heywood, 2012, p. 282). The rise in Religious Fundamentalism can be linked to the secularization thesis, which implies that victory of reason over religion follows modernization. Also, the moral protest of faiths such as Islam and Christianity can be linked to the rise of Religious Fundamentalism, as they protest the influence of corruption and pretence that infiltrate their beliefs from the spread of secularization (Heywood, 2012, p. 283). Religious Fundamentalists have followed a traditional political thought process, yet, have embraced a militant style of activity which often can turn violent (Heywood, 2012, p. 291).
Functionalists believe religion is a conservative force that performs positive functions of promoting social integration and social solidarity through the reinforcement of value consensus. In this essay I will draw on ideas from Durkheim, Malinowski, Parsons and Bellah. I will then evaluate these theorists with Marxist, feminist and postmodernist perspectives in order to assess the extent functionalism helps us to understand religion today.
Walsh, W., 1999. Religion in Ireland- Past, present and future: The church in the new Millennium.
precedent to go by for a woman to be in power. So Henry wanted to
Religion is perhaps one of the universe’s biggest mysteries. Is there some divine being or spiritual being guiding our lives? Religion is an understanding that there is something greater that guides and protects us. In today’s society, there are many different religions and they all practice and worship in different ways. Each religion presents diverse religious traditions, rituals and even beliefs. In other words, religion means something different to different people.