A2 BELIEFS: SECULARISATION TOPIC 3

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  • Created by: Banisha.
  • Created on: 22-02-18 13:34
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  • TOPIC 3 SECULARISATION
    • REASONS FOR SECULARISATION
      • fewer baptisms and church weddings
      • greater religious diversity and non religious beliefs
      • decline in the number of church goers and people holiding christian beliefs
      • rationalisation
        • science disproves relgion
      • believing without belonging - DAVIE
    • REFERS TO THE DECLINE IN THE IMPORTANCE OF RELIGION
    • SECULARISATION IN BRITAIN
      • RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS TODAY
        • declining clergy
        • religion does not provide education the state does
        • Bruce predicts that if current trends continue the Methoidist church will fold around 2030, there will be a small organisation
        • over 1/2 secondary schools in wales fail to provide act of collective
      • STATISTICS IN BRITAIN
        • between 1983 and 2015 the proportion of Britains who identify as Christian fell from 55% to 43%
        • non religious now make up 48% of the British population
      • WILSON AND CHURCH ATTENDANCE
        • 1996 - argued western socities had undergone a process of secularisation
          • 'whereby religious beliefs, practises and institutions lose their social significance'
        • argues church attendance in UK has fallen from 40% of the population in the mid 19th century to 10-15%
        • Britain has become a secular society
        • bogus baptisms
    • EXPLANATIONS OF SECULARISATION
      • WEBER -RATIONALISATION
        • DISENCHANTMENT
          • refers to squezzing out the magical and religous ways of thinking and starts off the rationalisation process that leads to the dominance of the rational mode of thought - undermines the relgious worldview
        • RATIONALISATION - refers to the process by which rational ways of thinking and acting come to replace relgious ones
      • TECHNOLOGICAL WORLDVIEW
        • BRUCE - growth of the technological worldview has replaced supernatural explanations of why things happen
        • although scientific explanations do not challenge religion directly it encourages results in people taking religion less seriously - liberally rather than literally
      • STRUCTURAL DIFFRENCIATION
        • refers to the process of specialisation that occurs with the development of industrial society
          • separate specialised institutions carry out functions previously performed by a single institution
        • PARSONS - sees religion as having dominated pre industrial society but with industrialisation it has become smaller and more specialised
        • DISENGAGEMENT
          • Structual diffrentiation leads to the disengagement of religion, the functions are transferred to other states and become disconnected from wider society
        • PRIVITISATION
          • Bruce - agrees that religion has become more separated and lost many functions - it has become privitised - confined to the private family and home, religious beliefs are a matter of choice, traditional meanings and symbols have lost meanings
      • SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DIVERISTY
        • DELINE OF COMMUNITY- move from pre industrial to industrial brings a decline of community = decline of religion - shared values and rituals can be lost through moblisation and through different communties
        • INDUSTRIALISATION - BRUCE -  industrialisation undermines the consensus of religious beliefs that hold small communities together - geographical mobility helps bring people together from many different backgrounds = creates more diversity
        • DIVERSITY, CULTURES AND LIFESTYLE UNDERMINE RELIGION - plausability - believability - of beliefs is undermined by individualism as it depneds on the practising community of belivers
        • CRITCISMS
          • ALDRIGE - communties do not have to be in a partiulcar area = it is a source of identity worldwide and use global/ social media to connect
      • RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY
        • SACRED CANOPY
          • in the middle ages the church held a monopoly of truth - a shared set of beliefs because the truth was unquestioned. Since the reformation different versions of the truth came and perceptions of the world varied - religious diveristy created relative truths rather than absolute truths
        • PLUASIBILITY STRUCTURE
          • BERGER - this creates a crisis, diversity undermines the plausibility structure - what is true or false bceomes a personal opinion and creates an option to opt out of religion
      • CULTURAL DEFENCE
        • religion provides a focal point for the defence of a national, ethnic local group in a stuggle against an external force against power eg catholicicsm in Poland before the fall if communism
      • CULTURAL TRANSITION
        • is where religion provides support and a sense of community for ethnice groups such as migrants to different countries
          • BRUCE - religion survives because of group identity can lose importance when adapting to a different culture
        • CRITICISMS
          • BERGER - diversity and choice stimulate interest in religion
          • BECKFORD - agrees that religious diversity will lead to some questioning religious beliefs/ abandon them
    • SECULARISATION ON AMERICA
      • DECLINIG CHURCH ATTENDANCE
        • Opinion polls - exagerated attendace Hadaway studied a church in Ohio and found the level of attendance was 83% higher than the researchers estimated = the attendance gap has widened and was exaggereated because it is seen as socially desirable to go to church so people have lied - lacks validity and representativeness
        • WILSON - 45% of Americans atteneded church on sundays - it is more of an AMerican way of life rather than deeply held religious belief , american was a secular society
      • SECULARISATION FROM WITHIN
        • Religion in america has become psychologised turned into a form of therpay, it is more about personal fulfilment allowing individuals to find a personal satisfaction and peace
        • churches have turned into community centres and religious languag has been shifted - evil and sin has been replaced with unhappiness and alienation , religious values have also been removed from debates surrounding divorce and abortion, these topics may be seen as deviant
        • religion is declining as traditional and substantive views are losingn significance
        • purpose of religion has changed from seeking salvation to personal improvement in this world
      • religious diversity
        • within america multiple religious beliefs exist which undermine the traditional sacred canopy, there has been a trend of PRACTICAL RELATVISM
        • pratical relativsim is the idea that multiple views exists- less dogmatic - we live in a society where this undermines the plausibility structure of our own religious beliefs - erosion of absolutism
    • EVALUATION OF SECULARISATION THEORY
      • Religion hasn't declined its a changing form
      • evidence is primarily based upoj church attendece figures what about htose who believe but don't belong
      • religious beliefs still exist around the world and are actually growing in significance
      • religion may have declined in europe but not globally so seculariation is not univeral
  • many faith schools - higher performing schools - will only take baptised children = baptism becomes an entry ticket to a good school rather than a sign of christian commitment
    • bogus baptisms
  • RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS TODAY
    • declining clergy
    • religion does not provide education the state does
    • Bruce predicts that if current trends continue the Methoidist church will fold around 2030, there will be a small organisation
    • over 1/2 secondary schools in wales fail to provide act of collective
  • protestant reformation - MLK - the process undermined the relgious worldview of the Middle ages and replaced it with the rational scientific outlook found in modern society
    • WEBER -RATIONALISATION
      • DISENCHANTMENT
        • refers to squezzing out the magical and religous ways of thinking and starts off the rationalisation process that leads to the dominance of the rational mode of thought - undermines the relgious worldview
      • RATIONALISATION - refers to the process by which rational ways of thinking and acting come to replace relgious ones
    • this brought a new wrold view, Protestantism saw God as transcendental existing above and beyond, left the world to run according to its own nature - we can understand the world through power and reason - there is no longer a need to religious explanations of the world
  • TECHNOLOGICAL WORLDVIEW
    • BRUCE - growth of the technological worldview has replaced supernatural explanations of why things happen
    • although scientific explanations do not challenge religion directly it encourages results in people taking religion less seriously - liberally rather than literally
  • this view leaves little room for religious explanations

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