Crash Course: Religion

What is an example of societies using religion as a form of social control?

Christianity and Judaism, for example, have the Ten Commandments, a set of rules for behavior that they believe were sent directly from God. But these commandments aren't just rules about how to worship - many of them match up with societal norms, like respecting your parents or not committing adultery, or with secular laws, which prohibit murder and theft.

How do societies use religion as a form of social control, according to Durkheim?

People behave well, not only out of fear of their friends and families disapproving, but also out of a desire to remain in their god's good graces.

What do many religions ban women from?

Positions within the clergy, including Catholicism, Orthodox Judaism, and Islam.

What is an example of religion being used to help people?

Quakers, a sect of Christianity, were leaders in the abolition movement and in the women's suffrage movement of the 19th century. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s was led by many with ties to the Black religious community.

How does religion provide people with a sense of purpose in life, according to Durkheim?

Sometimes it can feel like our lives are such tiny blips in the grand scheme of the universe, it can be hard to imagine why your actions matter. Religion gives people a reason to see their lives as meaningful, by framing them within the greater purpose of their god's grand plan.

What religion do most Black Americans identify with?

The vast majority of Black Americans identify with a Protestant faith, with evangelical churches being the most common affiliation. There's also a growing number of Black Americans who identify as Muslim, with about 40% of all native-born Muslims in the US identifying themselves as African American.

What are rituals?

A form of symbolic practice that highlight faith. Many religions use certain actions during prayer that symbolize deference to God.

How has religion been using to control women's behaviors?

By requiring them to dress modestly or not allowing women to speak in church or be alone with men outside their family.

How does religion help establish social cohesion, according to Durkheim?

By uniting people around shared symbols, norms, and values. Durkheim argued that religious though promotes norms like morality, fairness, charity, and justice.

How does where you live impact what religion you participate in?

Catholicism is more common in Northeastern and Southwestern states, whereas the South has high concentrations of Evangelical Protestants, such as Baptists, and the Midwest has higher concentrations of other Protestant faiths, such as Methodists and Lutherans.

What are examples of rituals?

Catholics making the sign of the cross before prayer, or Muslims supplicating themselves and facing Mecca, the birthplace of the prophet Mohammed.

What is an example of religion establishing social cohesion?

Churches act as gathering places, forming the backbone of social life for many people. In fact, membership in a church is the most common community association for Americans.

What are religious sects?

Faiths with belief systems that are less formal and less integrated into society. And they tend to attract followers who are more disadvantaged.

How did Durkheim define religion?

He defined religion not in terms of gods or supernatural phenomena, but in terms of the sacred - things that are set apart from society as extraordinary, inspiring awe, and deserving of reverence. He claimed that in all societies, there's a difference between the sacred and the profane, of the mundane, everyday parts of life. Religion, then, is a social institution that involves a unified system of beliefs and practices that recognizes the sacred.

What is an example of religion contributing to gender and racial inequalities?

If you walk around any major museum in the Western world, you're pretty much guaranteed to find some art depicting religious figures from Judaism or Christianity. And in these paintings, God is pretty much exclusively an old white man with a beard.

What is an example of ritual ablution?

In the religious practice of baptism, water is a symbol of people's belief that faith cleanses the soul.

How does symbolic interactionism see religion?

It thinks about society in terms of the symbols that humans construct. And all religions rely on the use of symbols to create the Sacred.

Why did Marx see religion as a huge barrier to revolutionary change?

It's hard to convince people to rise up against the elites if they believe that the elites have the power of God behind them. He referred to it as the 'opiate of the masses.'

What are examples of religious sects?

Jehovah's Witnesses, Pentecostals, or Unitarians.

Are most divine figures and prophets male or female?

Male. Virtually all of the world's major religions are patriarchal, with religious texts often explicitly describing men in the image of God and women in subordinate roles to men.

How are Evangelical denominations characterized by?

More active attempts to proselytize, or spread the faith to others outside the faith.

What percent of Americans claim religion is important to them?

More than 70%, which is more than double the rate of adults in other high income countries like Norway or Japan.

What are churches?

More well-established religious faiths that are well-integrated into society.

What are examples of churches?

Most major religions are what we would call a Church - Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism are all 'Churches'.

What religions do Americans identify as?

National surveys show that about 50% of Americans identify as Protestants, 20% identify as Catholics, 6% identify with a non-Christian faith, and 23% do not identify with a religion at all.

What is a totem?

Objects that we have collectively defined as sacred.

What is an example of religion being a form of division?

Rulers in many societies were believed to be given their right to rule by divine right. Chinese emperors were believed to have a mandate from heaven, and were given the title Son of Heaven to indicate their divine authority to rule. In Europe, heads of state were often also the head of the Church - in fact, to this day, the British monarchs are the formal heads of the Church of England.

What do sacred and profane mean?

Sacred doesn't mean good and profane doesn't mean bad. Instead, recognizing something as sacred is about seeing a certain place, object, or experience as special and creating markers that separate it from your day to day life.

How has religion been used to uphold racial inequality?

Slavery in the United States, for example, was framed as morally justifiable based on various texts from the Bible, most prominently the story of Cain and Abel, in which God 'marked' Cain for murdering his brother, which was interpreted to mean marking him as sinful with darker skin.

How can religion be a form of division?

Social Conflict Theory perspectives understand religion in terms of how it entrenches existing inequalities. Karl Marx saw religion as an agent of social stratification, which served those in power by legitimizing the status quo and framing existing inequality as part of a divine plan.

What are denominations?

Subgroups of religious practice.

What is an example of a totem?

Symbols like the Cross or the Star of David.

How do racial ethnic groups affect regional differences in religion?

The Midwest, for example, had high numbers of German and Scandinavian immigrants settle there, and these ethnic groups are often Lutherans. Irish and Italian Americans, who were more likely to be Catholic, settled in New England and the Mid-Atlantic.

What is predestination?

The belief that God pre-ordains everything that comes to pass, including whether you get into heaven. So, by this logic, having wealth and power was seen as an indication of God's favor.

How do younger Americans feel about religion?

The importance of religion in the United States has been on the decline in recent decades - a process known as secularization. Younger Americans are much more likely now to report that they do not believe in any religion compared to past generations.

What are the denominations of the Protestant faith?

There are a large number of denominations, including both mainstream denominations, such as Presbyterians and Lutherans, and Evangelical churches, such as Methodists and Baptists.

What percent of Black Americans identify as religious?

They are somewhat more likely to be religious than the US population as a whole, with 87% claiming an affiliation with some faith.

How can types of dress or grooming practices demonstrate someone's faith?

They become sacred indicators of faith because they're visible symbols of religious belief. Such as men's beards in Islam or Orthodox Judaism. Totems confer in-group membership to those who wear or use these symbols, because they provide a way for people to demonstrate their faith and recognize that faith in others.

What is ritual ablution?

Washing certain parts of the body during a religious ceremony.

What does the religion you identify with depend on?

Who you are - in terms of where you live, in terms of class, and in terms of race and ethnicity.