Sociology
Sociology is the study of social behavior or society, including its origins, development, organization, networks, and institutions. It is a social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order, disorder, and change.
Do you agree with specific theory of religion?
Religion is a pervasive and significant cultural phenomenon, so people who study culture and human nature have sought to explain the nature of religion, the nature of religious beliefs, and the reasons why religions exist in the first place. There have been as many theories as theorists, it seems, and while none fully captures what religion is, all offer important insights on the nature of religion and possible reasons why religion has persisted through human history.
What are the different theories of the origin of religion?
- Psychopathological model: religions are founded during a period of severe stress in the life of the founder. ...
- Entrepreneurial model: founders of religions act like entrepreneurs, developing new products (religions) to sell to consumers (to convert people to). ...
- Social model: religions are founded by means of social implosions. ...
Which religion is the one true religion?
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What is the psychological theory of religion?
The psychology of religion is the study of religion from the human psychological point of view. Those who study religion from the psychological perspective are interested in three primary areas that may be broadly characterized as past, present, and future. Past: What psychological factors gave rise to particular religious beliefs in various societies and cultures, or what psychological factors were responsible for a particular individual’s adoption of certain religious beliefs?
What are the theory of origin of religion?
Today, religion is considered a product of society and not a creation of man, established by God, not God's work. Therefore, the creator of religion is not God but society. Today, the theory of divine revelation about the origin of religion is considered a remnant of superstition and orthodoxy.
What is the main concept of religion?
Religion is a matter of faith, or belief based on conviction rather than scientific evidence. Faith is frequently portrayed through the use of rituals, which are formal, ceremonial behaviors that represent religious meanings, and totems, which are objects that are collectively sacred.
What is the social theory of religion?
The Sociological Approach to Religion. Religion describes the beliefs, values, and practices related to sacred or spiritual concerns. Social theorist Émile Durkheim defined religion as a “unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things” (1915).
What are the theories of religion in sociology?
Theoretical Perspectives on Religion. Modern-day sociologists often apply one of three major theoretical perspectives. These views offer different lenses through which to study and understand society: functionalism, symbolic interactionism, and conflict theory.
Who made religion?
Ancient (before AD 500)Founder NameReligious tradition foundedLife of founderJesus (and the Twelve Apostles)Christianityc. 4 BC – c. 30/33 ADPaul the ApostlePauline Christianityc. 33 ADJames the JustJewish Christianityc. 33 ADLakulishaPashupata Shaivism sect of Hinduism1st century AD27 more rows
What are the three basic concept of religion?
As this paper shows, three main uses are currently dominant: religion as belief/meaning, religion as identity, and religion as structured social relations.
What is functional theory of religion?
Functionalists view religion in a positive way; they see religion to play the function of maintaining harmony and social cohesion. Functionalism is a value consensus theory and so functionalists see religion as a positive apparatus in society which promotes social solidarity and allows society to run smoothly.
What are the theories of psychology of religion?
The views of these seven theorists on religion are deduced from varying schools of personality theory—psychoanalytic, archetypal, humanistic and existential—and, therefore, offer us ways of understanding religion in the context of differing modes of human self-understanding.
What does Marx say about religion?
Marx's actual words regarding religion deserve reflection. My best translation of those words is as follows: “Religion is the opium of the people. It is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of our soulless conditions.”
Who is the father of religion?
AbrahamAbraham אַבְרָהָםDeathc. 1975 BCE Hebron, Canaan (present-day West Bank)Recognition reasonNamesake of Abrahamic religions: Traditional founder of Judaism, spiritual ancestor of Christians, major Islamic prophetParent(s)Terah (father) Amathlai (mother, Talmud)6 more rows
What is anthropological theory of religion?
Humanism in anthropology means simply that explanations of religion (as of other human thought and action) are secular and naturalistic. They account for religions as products of human culture and human nature, not as manifestations of anything transcendental, supernatural, or otherwise sui generis.
What is the importance of religion?
Religion helps in creating an ethical framework and also a regulator for values in day to day life. This particular approach helps in character building of a person. In other words, Religion acts as an agency of socialization. Thus, religion helps in building values like love, empathy, respect, and harmony.
What are the theories of religion?
Religion reinforces prevailing social and economic arrangements by both consoling the oppressed and justifying their oppression. Freud's "psychoanalytic" theory explains religion as both the delusional fulfillment of powerful wishes for a protector, and as a symbolic enactment of ambivalence about the father. He describes a primal crime in which jealous sons kill and devour their father. Religions are attempts to allay guilt by deferred obedience to the father. Freud equivocates about the historicity of this oedipal conflict. Sometimes he portrays the primal crime as an historical phylogenetic truth. Sometimes he treats it purely as an illustration of a universal psychological conflict.
What is the most influential humanistic theory of religion?
David Hume 's The Natural History of Religion (1757) is the most influential eighteenth-century humanistic theory of religion. In composing a "natural history" of religion, Hume brings religious phenomena within the purview of science. As part of his larger project to create a science of human nature, Hume seeks both to isolate the causes of religion in human nature and to identify the consequences of religion in light of human nature. Not only does Hume consider religion a fit object for scientific investigation, he also theorizes that religion arises in the absence of science. In his pithy phrase, "Ignorance is the mother of devotion" (p. 75). Religion, Hume believes, fills the void when humans lack the aptitude for better founded explanatory principles.
How does Hume explain religion?
Hume's theory explains religion in intellectual terms: as an account of the unknown causes at work in the natural and social worlds. An enterprise fundamentally concerned with explanation, prediction, and control, religion, on Hume's view, directly competes with science. Later, Victorian anthropologists like Edward Tyler, James Frazer, and Herbert Spencer likewise adopt a fundamentally intellectualist explanation of religion. They too see religion in conflict with science. As early as 1799, however, an alternative explanation of religion emerges. Unwilling to declare religion obsolete, Friedrich Schleiermacher argues that it constitutes an autonomous domain distinct from science. Religion, he claims in On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers (1799), consists in "the sensibility and taste for the infinite" within finite experience (p. 103). This religious feeling is independent of, and prior to, all thought or belief, though it naturally finds expression in language. The growth of science need not, therefore, conflict with religion because beliefs and judgments are essentially foreign to religion.
What is Emile Durkheim's theory of religion?
Emile Durkheim conceives his humanistic theory of religion in self-conscious opposition to intellectualist theories of religion. In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912) he insists that the generative source of religion cannot simply be ignorance. Otherwise, religion would have disappeared long ago under the pressure of massive disconfirmation because religious beliefs are "barely more than a fabric of errors" (p. 227). Durkheim proposes to explain the persistence of religion (its "ever-present causes") despite the errors it contains (p. 7).
Why was the Reformation necessary?
The social discord in which the Reformation culminated made it necessary, furthermore, to privatize religion, to push it out of public affairs for the sake of peace. Religion came to be viewed as a discreet domain of culture, distinct from morality, and ranged alongside law, science, politics, and art.
What is the classification of religion?
Theories of religion can be classified into: Substantive (or essentialist) theories that focus on the contents of religions and the meaning the contents have for people. This approach asserts that people have faith because beliefs make sense insofar as they hold value and are comprehensible.
Why did Freud argue that religion is unconscious?
Freud asserted that religion is a largely unconscious neurotic response to repression.
What is the second methodology of theorists?
A second methodology, functionalism, seeks explanations of religion that are outside of religion; i.e., the theorists are generally (but not necessarily) atheists or agnostics themselves. As did the essentialists, the functionalists proceeded from reports to investigative studies.
Why do people reject supernatural explanations for the status or origins of religions?
When explaining religion they reject divine or supernatural explanations for the status or origins of religions because they are not scientifically testable.
What is social relational theory?
Social relational theories of religion that focus on the nature or social form of the beliefs and practices. Here, Charles Taylor’s book The Secular Age is exemplary, as is the work of Clifford Geertz.
What is rational choice theory?
See also. Sociological and anthropological theories about religion (or theories of religion) generally attempt to explain the origin and function of religion. These theories define what they present as universal characteristics of religious belief and practice.
Who was the anthropologist who believed in spirits?
Edward Burnett Tylor. The anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor (1832–1917) defined religion as belief in spiritual beings and stated that this belief originated as explanations of natural phenomena. Belief in spirits grew out of attempts to explain life and death.
How did religion develop?
To him, religion developed out of the human need for a protective father figure. In short, as humans age, they begin to see the weaknesses in their earthly fathers. A god figure steps in and gives humans a father in whom they can trust. In true Freudian style, he theorized that this need led men to create religion.
Why are people not religious?
To Kant, religious beliefs are unprovable. Therefore, people are not religious due to their power of reason or their cognitive minds.
What did Frazer believe about religion?
Explained in his work The Golden Bough, Frazer believed that religion began as humans attempted to control nature. To Frazer, the development of religion happened in evolving phases.
What did Marx say about religion?
To Marx, religion stemmed from the struggle between social classes and is simply man's attempt to make living within these classes bearable. As his famous quote is often paraphrased, 'Religion is the opium of the people.'.
What is the nature worship theory?
Muller's nature-worship theory is closely tied to animism. In animism, all of nature is full of unseen spirits, which are to be worshipped.
Who believed that a highly evolved person would eventually desert the tales of magic and religion in acceptance of science?
Adding to this, Frazer believed a highly evolved person will eventually desert the tales of magic and religion in acceptance of science. Perhaps two of the most famous theories on religion come from the 19th century's Karl Marx and the 20th century's Sigmund Freud.
Who linked the origin of religion to man's need for a father figure in whom he could trust?
From a completely different perspective, Freud linked the origin of religion to man's need for a father figure in whom he could trust. After this lesson, you should be able to describe several theories on the origin of religion, those of: Kant, Muller, Frazer, Marx and Freud. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member.
What is Durkheim's theory of religion?
Durkheim's theory of religion exemplifies how functionalists examine sociological phenomena. According to Durkheim, people see religion as contributing to the health and continuation of society in general. Thus, religion functions to bind society's members by prompting them to affirm their common values and beliefs on a regular basis.
How does religion prevent social change?
Religion, then, prohibits social change by teaching nonresistance to oppression, diverting people's attention away from worldly injustices, justifying inequalities of power and wealth for the privileged, and emphasizing rewards yet to come.
What religions did Weber see barriers to capitalism?
In the Eastern religions, Weber saw barriers to capitalism. For example, Hinduism stresses attaining higher levels of spirituality by escaping from the toils of the mundane physical world. Such a perspective does not easily lend itself to making and spending money.
Why are rituals important?
Rituals are necessary to bind together the members of a religious group, and they allow individuals to escape from the mundane aspects of daily life into higher realms of experience . Sacred rituals and ceremonies are especially important for marking occasions such as births, marriages, times of crisis, and deaths.
What is the role of sin in Christianity?
In Christianity, the idea of “sin” and its atonement by God's grace plays a fundamental role. Unlike the Eastern religions' passive approach, salvation religions like Christianity are active, demanding continuous struggles against sin and the negative aspects of society.
Who is the most famous scientist who studied religion?
Durkheim claimed that his theory applied to religion in general, yet he based his conclusions on a limited set of examples. Max Weber, on the other hand, initiated a large‐scale study of religions around the globe. His principal interest was in large, global religions with millions of believers. He conducted in‐depth studies of Ancient Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904/1958), Weber examined the impact of Christianity on Western thinking and culture.
Who said religion is the opium of the people?
Marx once declared that religion is the “opium of the people.”. He viewed religion as teaching people to accept their current lot in life, no matter how bad, while postponing rewards and happiness to some afterlife.
What is Karl Marx's theory of religion?
After reading this article you will learn about Marxism and Religion:- 1. Definition of Religion 2. Sources of Marx’s Thought 3. Religion as Class Ideology 4. Religion and Science 5. Universality of Religion 6.
What is Marx's view on religion?
In other words, religion is the self-consciousness and self feeling of man who has either not yet found himself or has already lost himself again.
Why does Marx call religion opium?
Marx calls it opium. Religion helps man to forget the real world. Persons having vested interests use religion for the attainment of their parochial and limited interests. Marx makes all these remarks about religion in the background of the role religion played in all the periods before him.
Which type of religion was presented to us by Feuerbach and Marx as the religion of alienated man?
“Theological religion, the type presented to us by Feuerbach and Marx as the religion of alienated man, is the religion of the sophisticated. It has been most fully accepted by the educated and the privileged”.
What is class ideology?
The term class ideology means religion is held or practiced by a class and the religious beliefs flourish within the class structure.
Which three philosophers believed that religion should be a private affair?
Marx, Engels and Lenin hold that religion must be treated as a private affair and state must not have any role in religious matter. The state should not interfere with the religious beliefs of individuals. It shall not be the business of state to encourage or discourage any religious belief.
What did Saint Simon argue for?
Saint-Simon for that reason argued for their progress which would be able to remove the sense of fear and insecurity from the mind of man. We can, therefore, say that Marx’s idea of religion is linked with Saint-Simon’s thought on the same subject.
Early Humanism
Religious Feelings
- Hume's theory explains religion in intellectual terms: as an account of the unknown causes at work in the natural and social worlds. An enterprise fundamentally concerned with explanation, prediction, and control, religion, on Hume's view, directly competes with science. Later, Victorian anthropologists like Edward Tyler, James Frazer, and Herbert ...
Society and Symbolism
- Emile Durkheim conceives his humanistic theory of religion in self-conscious opposition to intellectualist theories of religion. In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life(1912) he insists that the generative source of religion cannot simply be ignorance. Otherwise, religion would have disappeared long ago under the pressure of massive disconfirmation because religious beliefs a…
Hume Redivivus
- Despite Durkheim's enormous influence over subsequent social scientific theory of religion, some late twentieth-century theory sustains themes advanced by Hume in the eighteenth century. Robin Horton, for example, in a series of essays spanning thirty years (and collected in 1993) argues for an intellectualist explanation of religion. While allowing that religious beliefs can reflect social pr…
Marx and Freud
- Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) and Karl Marx (1818–1883) both authored prominent humanistic theories of religion with scientific or quasi-scientific pretensions. Marx endorses Feuerbach's view of religion as alienation and projection, but argues that religion, or alienated consciousness, is only an epiphenomenal reflection of a more basic dehumanizing alienation at the level of social …
Bibliography
- alighieri, dante. the divine comedy, vol. 1: the inferno, trans. mark musa. new york: penguin, 1984. andresen, jensine. religion in mind: cognitive perspectives on religious belief, ritual, and experience. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press, 2001. boyer, pascal. the naturalness of religious ideas: a cognitive theory of religion. berkeley: university of california press, 1994. boyer…
History
Classification
- Theories of religioncan be classified into: 1. Substantive (or essentialist) theoriesthat focus on the contents of religions and the meaning the contents have for people. This approach asserts that people have faith because beliefs make sense insofar as they hold value and are comprehensible. The theories by Tylor and Frazer (focusing on the explanatory value of religion for its adherents)…
Methodologies
- Early essentialists, such as Tylor and Frazer, looked for similar beliefs and practices in all societies, especially the more primitive ones, more or less regardless of time and place. They relied heavily on reports made by missionaries, discoverers, and colonial civil servants. These were all investigators who had a religious background themselves, thus they looked at religion fr…
Substantive Theories
- Evolutionary theories
Main articles: Evolutionary origin of religions and Evolutionary psychology of religion Evolutionary theories view religion as either an adaptation or a byproduct. Adaptationist theories view religion as being of adaptive value to the survival of Pleistocene humans. Byproduct theories view religio… - Edward Burnett Tylor
The anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor (1832–1917) defined religion as belief in spiritual beings and stated that this belief originated as explanations of natural phenomena. Belief in spirits grew out of attempts to explain life and death. Primitive people used human dreams in which spirits s…
Functional Theories
- Karl Marx
Main article: Marxism and religion, Sociology of religion § Karl Marx, Marx’s theory of alienation, and Opium of the People The social philosopher Karl Marx (1818–1883) held a materialist worldview. According to Marx, the dynamics of society were determined by the relations of prod… - Sigmund Freud
Main articles: Freud and religion See also: Psychology of religion § Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) saw religion as an illusion, a belief that people very much wanted to be true. Unlike Tylor and Frazer, Freud attempted to explain why religion persists in spite of the lack of ev…