Sociology 7

According to Durkheim's scheme, magic is not religion. Why?

Magical practices are NOT religion because there is no community of believers. It is just a provider/client relationship.

Explain how Marx and Weber differ in the way they link religion and the economy?

Marx- religion is an ideology that stems directly from class interests. Because religion comes with a set of norms about how the world works, faith can keep the downtrodden in their places so long as religious norms make it seem just. Weber- Religious ideas are independent forces in their own right. Ideas and beliefs are not just a reflection of class. It's not just one sided, it has the potential to go both ways.

What are the types of things which can be sacred? How can one identify what is sacred to a particular group or society?

The sacred is anything that the profane cannot touch, can be: time, place, beings, objects, music, actions. Sacred things are protected and isolated by prohibitions, especially from outsiders

What are the two primary dynamics in the supply side of religious economies, and what are their consequences for religion as a whole, and for particular religious organizations?

The shifting of religious firms from one niche to another. Changes in market regulation. As a whole religion stays the same. Religious firms just move from one niche to another and people either move with them or move to a new sect. Particular religious organizations lose or gain members as they lose or gain a potential market.

Secularism

a general movement away from religiosity and spiritual belief toward a rational, scientific orientation, a trend adopted by industrialized nations in the form of separation of church and state

Sect

high-tension organizations that don't fit well within the existing social environment. They are usually most attractive to society's least privileged— outcasts, minorities, or the poor—because they downplay worldly pleasure by stressing otherworldly promises.

Cult

religious movement that makes some new claim about the supernatural and therefore does not easily fit within the sect-church cycle.

How do the different aspects of religion affect society according to Durkheim and why does he argue that some form of religion is inevitable?

Disciplinary- Prepares people for life by imposing self-discipline and asceticism. Cohesive- Brings people together to affirm common bonds. Vitalizing- Revitalizes heritage. Euphoric- Counteracts feelings of loss due to death of one of its members. There can be no society that does not experience the need at regular intervals to maintain and strengthen the collective feelings and ideas that provide its coherence and its distinct individuality. Only something like religion can do this

Explain how, according to Max Weber, Protestantism was central to the development of modern capitalism

In more Protestant area, people had more capital. Calvinist teachings taught that each person had a calling, fulfilling one's duty to god by doing everyday work. Also, there was the idea of predestination, the notion that only the elect are chosen by God for salvation. There was no way to know if you were going to heaven or hell. But a good sign of heaven was having being successful. Also, you had to be disciplined and live a lifestyle free of luxury. So these ideas bred capitalists who focused on earning and saving their money

Contrary to secularization theory, which posited the pluralism would undermine the credibility of faith, why have Americans maintained high levels of religiosity?

Going to church is now seen by many as an informal communal gathering. People have internalized the idea that being religious does not have to mean going to formal religious things like Church. You can be religious from home The strictness of being "religious" has gone down. Many people say they're religious but couldn't tell you what the first book of the bible is.

How do Stark and Finke characterize the "demand side" of religion, particularly the taste for "tension" and its distribution in the population?

How much religion do people want (quantity), What kind of religion do they prefer (quality). Tension: the relationship between the religious group and the outside world can be characterized by the degree of: distinctiveness, separation, antagonism. Sect =High tension, Church = low tension. There is roughly a bell curve of distribution among society, from super liberals to super strict

Sacred Canopy

Pluralism threatens to rip apart a unified faith's sacred canopy: Peter Berger's term to describe the entire set of religious norms, symbols, and beliefs that express the most important thing in life—namely, the feeling that life is worth living and that reality is meaningful and ordered, not just random chaos.

Explain what Marx meant by the statement that religion is "the opiate of the masses". Explain how Marx linked faith and social stratification

Religion is a clever means of stratification, of allocating rewards, such that some people benefit handsomely from the fruits of society while many others suffer. Religious convictions, he claimed, hold sway over people with promises of happiness in the afterlife, keeping them duped into remaining exploited workers in oppressive, alienating factory jobs. The myth of salvation keeps men toiling in manufacture, scraping by on unfair wages with the hope of finding happiness in the afterlife, while the boss grows rich on their backs. Because religion comes with a set of norms of how the world works, faith keeps the downtrodden in their place as long as the faith makes its seem normal and just.

Church

Religious bodies that coexist in a relatively low state of tension with their social surroundings. They have mainstream, "safe" beliefs and practices relative to those of the general population.

What is a "religious economy" and what does it include?

Religious economy: all of the religious activity going on in a society. It includes: A "market" of current and potential individual adherents. A set of one or more organizations seeking to attract or maintain these adherents. The religious culture offered by the organization(s)

What is the sect-church cycle? How can this help us understand social change?

So there's a church, and some people become disenchanted with it, mostly for its adoption of secular beliefs or watering down of the original beliefs, so they break off and form a sect. Then, as the sect gains more and more followers, it transforms into a church and renters the mainstream. It's a cycle of social change, in attracting a wider audience you have to water down the more extreme beliefs, and then some people who came for the extreme beliefs leave and start over

According to Durkheim, how does religion contribute to social solidarity?

Religiously active people are less likely to commit crimes - reduces deviance. religion perpetuates social unity or solidarity by strengthening the collective conscience: The shared beliefs and ideas, ways of thinking and knowing. Religion strengthens bond of people not only to god but also to society

Give an example of how the sacred is separated from the profane. What social functions are served by this separation?

Sacred: Holy things put to special use for worship and kept separate from the profane; the sacred realm is unknowable and mystical, so it inspires us with feelings of awe and wonder. Profane: the things of mundane, everyday life. The separation gives us motivation to go through life because the sacred is something we can't attain but something we can revere and it is not the profane - everyday life. The sacred is something different that can give mundane life meaning.

What are the social forces that shape religious preferences?

Social Class: Recruitment happens through existing social ties, which are heavily influenced by class. Gender: Women seem more inclined to want high-tension faith than do men. Race/Ethnicity: racial and ethnic minorities also seem to prefer higher tension faith. Life events and crises may predispose people to higher tension faiths. Socialization: probably the most important factor in that most people will continue with the religious organization in which they are raised. This is due to conserving attachments that they already have. If attachments are disrupted, more switching and re-affiliating will occur

What was Durkheim's rationale for examining religion among the Australian Aborigines?

They were the most "primitive" society known. He believed that their system of religion held the key to fundamentals of ALL religion. All societies evolved from something like that, so all religions must have evolved like that as well

Pluralism

the presence and engaged coexistence of numerous distinct groups in one society.