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beliefs in society - Coggle Diagram

- - - - e.g. God
    - - religion is a belief in a superior or supernatural power that is above nature and cannot be explained scientifically
    - - +conform to a widespread view of religion as belief in God
      - -leaves no room for beliefs and practices that preform similar functions to religion, but dont believe in a God
      - -western bias as they exclude religions such as Buddism
  - - - religion in terms of contribution it makes to social integration rather than any specific belief in God/supernatural powers
    - - identifies functions that religion preforms for the ind as answering 'ultimate questions' about the meaning of life and what happened when we die
    - - +inclusive-include a wide range of beliefs and practices that preform functions
      - +no bias as they dont specify the ind has to believe in God
      - -just because an institution helps integrate ind into groups, does not mean it is a religion
  - - - scientology is a religion for its followers, but several govs have denied its legal status as a religion
      - definitions of religion can be contested and are influenced by who has power to define the situation
    - - +close to the meanings people themselves give to religion
      - -impossible to generalise about the nature of religion
  - - - religious institutions play a central part in creating and maintaining value consensus,order and solidarity
      - sacred and profane
        
        key feature of religion is a fundamental distinction between the sacred and profane in all religions
        
        sacred things-set apart and forbidden-inspire feelings of awe,fear and wonder
        
        profane-things that have no special significance things that are ordinary and mundane
        
        religion is never simply a set of beliefs it involves rituals or practices in relation to the sacred
        
        sacred things evoke such powerful feelings as they are sybols representing something of great power
        
        things that are worshipped is society itself
      - totemism
        
        the essence of all religion could be found by studying its simpelist form-clan society
        
        Arunta clans
        
        consists of bands of kin who come together periodically to preform rituals involving worship of a sacred totem
        
        totem is the clans emblem e.g. animal that symbolises the clans origins and identity
        
        when clans worship totems, they are in reality worshipping society-even though they are not aware of this effect
        
        the totem inspires feelings of awe in the clan's members as it represents the power of the group that the ind is 'utterly dependent on'
      - the collective conscience
        
        the sacred symbols represent societys 'collective conscience or consiousness'.
        
        shared norms,values,beliefs and knowledge that makes social life and co operation between ind possible
        
        regular shared religious rituals reinforce the collective conscience and maintain social integration
        
        rituals bind ind together-reminding them that they are part of a single moral community of which they owe loyalty
        
        such rituals remind them of the power of society-without them they are nothing
      - cognitive functions
        
        religion is a source of our intellectual or cognitive capacity
        
        religion is the origin of the concepts and categories we need for reasoning,understanding the world and communicating
        
        Durkheim and Mauss
        
        religion provides basic categories such as time,space and causation
        
        similarly, the division of tribes into clans gives humans their first notion of classification
        
        religion is the origin of human thought,reason and science
      - critisims
        
        unsound evidence on totenism
        
        Worsley
        
        no sharp division between