Ideologies in Religion (OCR A-Level Sociology): Revision Notes

Ideologies in Religion

Some sociologists argue that religion and science are more similar to each other than it seems as they both can perform similar functions. However, other sociologists argue that fundamentally science and religion are very different.

Evidence:

People are increasingly able to read the word of God and come to conclusions for themselves. They began to become disenchanted with religious explanations, they were developing a rational worldview

• What might have been seen as acts of God in the 16th century are now put down as natural rather than religious causes
• 📝For example, sudden deaths might be put down to undetected heart disease or cancer whereas in the past people might have thought that God was punishing them.
• This can be seen in the small numbers of people who attend Church regularly in the UK – the last church census suggested only 4% regularly attend church and religion as a belief system is in decline, perhaps overtaken in people's lives by the belief system of science

Evaluation:

• However, postmodernists criticise this reliance on statistics as evidence of a lack of belief in God. This is because society has completely changed in the last 50 years, many people in today's society are working Sundays which wouldn't have happened in the past. As a result, it may not mean they don't want to attend church, but simply cannot due to employment commitments.
• Davie argues that people still believe in God but don't belong to a church or attend regularly Therefore using statistics of church attendance to measure religion is inaccurate as many people are still religious but may not attend church.