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Secularisation theory - Coggle Diagram
Secularisation theory
the 'post-modern world'
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However, after WW2, it was clear that humanity was not ready for new technologies because of the Holocaust and nukes
We see the world through meta-narratives, built on subjective truths - like religion, gender roles, ideology, etc.
We need to deconstruct these meta-narratives, as they are dangerous because societies can fight because they see one situation through two subjective views
Therefore, we need to question everything about religion and make sure that it is not powerful in society
Loss of social function
Religion no longer has the social functions that it used to, because society is more diverse (so no social integration) and the state does a lot of things that religion used to do (housing, schools, medicine, etc.)
Berger - 'shared canopy' - society no longer has a shared space to unite it, because there are many people of many different religions
Functionalists - Parsons (structural differentiation - the state now does things that the church used to) and Bellah (civil religions, like patriotism, have replaced religion as a source of identity)
However
Religion has changed, not gone - new religions are growing up while old religions are declining
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Civil religions - patriotism has declined at the same time as religion has, so it has not replaced it
New religions and cults are anti-social - the people who join them are normally rejected by society - Wilson
Rationalism
Humans are becoming more rational and so replacing religion with science, because they no longer need the explanations that religion is giving them
Comte (we are moving from a religious belief system to a rational scientific one) and Max Weber (disenchanted garden - we used to live in a magic garden, because we couldn't explain how anything worked, but now with science, we can explain, so the garden is no longer magic)
Steve Bruce - if there is a plane crash, people now look for a technical explanation, not call it an act of God
Criticisms
We are biased towards highly-educated city inhabitants in Western countries - outside that class, people are still a lot more religious and a lot less rational/scientific
Existential Security Theory - people need religion when they are poor - so people are only less religious in wealthy places
People believe a lot of non-scientific things - e.g. a majority of people in some countries like Russia, France and the USA do not believe in vaccination from COVID
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