In Society and Lifestyles, I learned about how some religions split and changed and how religion has decreased over the years mainly in western Europe. This related to culture and many philosophers have different beliefs from this. We learned that a German philosopher called Max Weber believed in the 1800s and early 1900s that the split from the catholic church (which was the protestant church) contributed to the success of capitalism in the western world. However, others such as Karl Max (who was also a German philosopher) during the 1800s believed that religion was the cause of “brainwashing” and illusions. There were many different beliefs and throughout the years many people started to not identify themselves as religious. This was known as secularisation and the causes of this was varied. This could be due to the modern teaching of science which taught children how the world was made and taught them about evolution which probably made many people debate their beliefs. Other ways of secularisation would be that people become more religious in times of need, however as there are more people who are privileged and have technology at their fingertips, this means less people are turning to religion for help. A main reason that religion is becoming less popular would be that people are now turning to “unchurched spirituality”. This means that they may be religious or not, but do not attend a church of any kind. A reason for this could be that they do not believe some aspects of the church. Another reason could be that they want to practice “individualism” and want to focus on themselves. Another factor could be that they want to identify themselves as something, so that they do not feel alone.

I understand most of the subjects covered, as I find it quite interesting to learn. However, I would like to learn more about the philosophers, because this is an area which I need to work on.

A way in which I will give evidence to support my claims about religion and culture would be to use reliable sources of information. I will use a variety of philosophers such as Karl Max and Max Weber. This would make sure my essay is a discursive piece and not biased, as I am giving a varied point of view.

Skills which I have developed is my reading skills. This is something which I have improved in as I believe this is essential for soaking up information. A skill and area of my performance would be to write more information during the lecture, this would include extra ideas of the subject from the lecturer, and will give me a greater insight into this module.

In todays lecture in society and lifestyles, we were introduced to religion and society and how they affect each other. I have learned about what religion is and what it means to people all around the world. By doing this I absorbed a lot on how diverse and similar religion can be to one another. I have also learned about the functions and views of religion from a variety of people such as Bronislaw Mlinowski who is an Anthropologist.

I understood most concepts, as I was intrigued to what people’s views were. I also went to a school which taught religious education twice a week, where I learned about the morals of different religions, however I did not go into much depth.

There are some theories about religion which I am new to, however to learn more about this, I will look through my “Religion and Society” booklet to recap on what I learned. I will also study journals that some sociologist wrote, so that I have reliable sources to back up my points.

I have become more open and aware in this module and this is a module which teaches us about society, diversity and a variety of factors which affects the life that surrounds us. To improve this I will not use or get my information from biased media such as newspapers and instead I will be diverse in my findings about religion and society. Hopefully this will improve my writing as I will have reliable sources for evidence, which hopefully will affect beneficially for my exam.