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Defining religion - Coggle Diagram
Defining religion
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Functionalists
Define religion based on its social functions - society is like a machine that needs all of the different parts to work to work itself, and religion is one of the parts
Social solidarity - one idea, one identity
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Psychological functions - to help individuals understand the 'big' or 'ultimate' questions - what happens when we die, why does evil exist
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Sociologists
Durkheim - social solidarity and social integration, society functions as a machine - Australia, with the Arunta tribe (a small society works exactly the same way as a big society, which means that you can study the small society and find the answers to problems in the big society)
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Malinowski - religion helps us deal with danger - went with a fishing tribe, and when they were in dangerous waters, they prayed, while they did not, when they were safe - therefore, religion helps us to overcome fear
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Evaluation
Functionalists believe that religion is positive and constructive - i.e. it always helps society - however, it can be oppressive (e.g. to homosexuals or other religions, such as the Jews)
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Inclusive - ignores what people believe to only focus on social functions; it believes religions are the same - include scientology, jediism and coca-cola
The idea that you can get what happens in some Pacific tribe and then apply to an enormous complex society, without much evidence, is clearly wrong - also, some sociologists believe Durkheim's methods when discovering the tribe were bad
Substantivists
Define religion based on belief in supernatural beings - you are religious if you believe in 'God' or other supernatural beings
Max Weber - belief in supernatural beings that cannot be explained by science, but which explain/influence the world around us
Tylor - 'the belief in supernatural beings' - evolution of religion (animism/non-theism, polytheism, monotheism) - evolution of religion happens more in complex superior societies
Evaluation
Exclusive - excludes many things that have religious functions and whose members would say it is a religion - e.g. Buddhism
Western bias - religion is defined in Western terms, where monotheistic is superior - but this does not reflect history (e.g. China was more powerful than any part of Western Europe for centuries with a non-theistic religion)
Social aspects are ignored - many religious people in the 'same' religions believe different things or nothing at all
Marxists
Religion is the 'opium of the masses' - a made up idea by the elites to keep the workers down/working; and stops people from revolution because it prevents them seeing their own exploitation
However, it does really help people, Christianity started with poor people, lack of historical evidence for any of this