With religion being an unfamiliar subject to myself I wasn’t aware of the impact it had on todays society and culture as a whole. In this weeks lecture I learned about ‘unchurched spirituality’ and religion and culture and how they affected each other. In the tutorials we developed into more detail about the three theorists, named Max Weber, Bruce Lincoln and Karl Max who opposed various different views and attitudes to religion and the impact it has on society.
Max weber, one of the three theorists, believes that Christianity (Protestantism) played a significant factor towards the rise of capitalism in the western world which would thrive the work load of people who believed in this religion. Weber named this the ‘Protestant Ethic’. He firmly believed that religion could be an agent for social change and today’s society would revolve around peoples religious beliefs.
However, Carl Marx was against this case and believed the opposite to Weber. Carl Max believed that religion was used to categorise the rich and the poor for the rich to dominate the poor. Marx argued that religion is an illusion and is unnecessary part of today’s society it is a human creation ‘man made’ by god. He believed the religion deluded people into thinking that religion was a ranking that only certain people go to heaven, religion is named by carl marx as the ‘opium of people’ it allows people to think that only the rich can control and many people are left to accept there religious ways.
Bruce Lincoln partly agrees with Carl Marx’s attitude by supporting the idea of religion controlling society through power named as ‘hegemonic struggle’. He strongly believes that people must not accept all religious claims and ideas however, should be aware that they are there. In contrast to this Matt Waggoner believes that religion is a subjective imagination and is a myth and performance. He believes that the existence of religion is in fact a myth that controls power in society and that culture is based on religion.
Overall after further reading of all three theorists it is clear that religion has a very large impact on culture and society. I believe that the attitudes and beliefs of the theorists are in some ways different however, all agree that religion is a social change and impacted on culture as a whole.
In addition to this, I found unchurched spirituality a very interesting topic to consider the way religion can explore different in society especially in western countries. Unchurched spirituality is when people seek the help of spiritual guidance even if they are not associated to a particular religious group.
Furthermore, religion can provide a solution to social problems in todays society however, can be said to provide social goods to people. One solution to a social problem that religion provides is material claims for people in time of need through food, shelter and care of the vulnerable. Secondly, it provides people with claims of community where people feel welcome to talk about their problems with people of similar issues. Thirdly, religion can also protect individuals for their well being and make them feel better as a whole, they may feel more meaningful . On the other hand, religion can also be a cause of social problems by impacting on health as many people refuse to accept medical treatments as it goes against their religion. Another cause may be people will use religion as an act of conflict and promote violence against other religions. Lastly, people may use their religion as an act of kindness to promote their religion and void belief in anything else.
After this weeks lecture I will further my knowledge by completing further reading to develop a real understanding of religion and culture. I have learned that religion will always have some sort of impact on todays society and culture.
In todays lecture, I have learned the types and beliefs of religion in society. After having never received any form of education at school on religion I feel that I have learned a lot more in detail about religious diversity and the positive and negative challenges and opportunities they offer. In the tutorial I feel I was beginning to learn how to prepare and form and essay with help from a group. This allows me to prepare essays plans that may possibly come up in the future. By completing the independent study task I was able research more on the anthropologist, ‘Bronislaw Malinowski’ and become more familiar with his beliefs in religion.