SOCIOLOGY: BELIEFS IN SOCIETY, MARXISM & RELIGION
- Created by: ameliab2001
- Created on: 16-11-21 13:03
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- MARXISM AND RELIGION
- Religion as an ideology
- misleads the poor into believing suffering is good and they'll be favoured in the afterlife
- ideas help form a distorted view keeping the poor from making changes > conservative force
- examples
- Islam: prophet Muhammed worked as a shepherd
- Hinduism: resurrection justifies unequal caste system
- Christianity: jesus was a carpenter
- Religion legitimises power of R.C
- Religion makes the privileged position of the R.C seem fated
- In the past Kings had "God-given power" so they couldn't be challenged
- Catholicism: pope's authority is from St Peter - the heir to Jesus' ministry
- Lenin
- he described religion as 'spiritual gin' which confuses the masses, keeping R.C in power.
- R.C use religion cynically to manipulate and stop attempts of overthrowing them
- Religion and alienation
- religion exists in all societies, but is more extreme under capitalism
- workers have no control over production so they are alienated - peaks when they have to do the same task endlessly
- no right to make decisions = denied of humanity
- example: Christianity 10 commandments think for people by controlling them
- Religion masks exploitation
- distorted view of society >> no solution >> misery >> illusion of happiness >> distraction from source of suffering (capitalism)
- evaluation
- Marxism ignores positive functions of religion e.g. charity work
- Abercrombie et al. (2015) in pre-capitalist society, Christianity = major element of R.C ideology, but had limited impact on peasants
- Religion as an ideology
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