Functionalist Theories of Religion

The Sacred and the profane -

• Sacred - Things set apart and forbidden, inspiring feelings of awe, leading to moral energy & conviction, often surrounded by taboos and prohibitions, e.g Catholic Tabernacle.
• Religion isn't simply a set of beliefs, it's collective practices and rituals in relation to the sacred.
• When people worship sacred symbols they are worshipping society itself. Sacred symbols represent the greater power that is society, uniting believers into a single moral community. Deepening group identity and morality.
• Profane - Things that have no special significance, ordinary and mundane. 

Totenism -

• The Arunta tribe - Bands of kin who come together periodically to worship a sacred totem, e.g, animal or plant that symbolises the clan's origins and identity. 
• The rituals that venerate the totem, reinforce the group's solidarity and sense of belonging. 
• Durkheim believes their worship of the totem is an unaware worship of society; the totem inspires feelings of awe representing the power of the group, that individuals are 'utterly dependent on'. 

The collective conscience -

• Shared norms, values, beliefs and knowledge that makes social life and co-operation between individuals possible, without these, social life would disintegrate.
• Regular shared religious rituals reinforce the collective conscience and maintains social integration.
• Shared rituals bind individuals together, reminding them of the single moral community that they owe their loyalty to. Without the great power of society individuals are nothing, they owe everything to it. 
• The individual - making us feel apart of something greater than ourselves, reinvigorates, strengthens & motivates us to face life's trials that would otherwise defeat us. 

Cognitive functions - 

• Religion answers big questions by providing us with time, space and causation, e.g, a creator bringing the world into being at the beginning of time. 
• It becomes the origin of human thought, reason and science. 

Criticisms -

• Worsley - Does not prove that he has discovered the essence of all religions, does not apply to larger scale societies where two or more religious communities may be in conflict. He's explaning social integration within communities, not conflict between them. E,g. Extremist  Christian and Islamic groups in conflict in the UK.
• Mestrovic (post-modernist) - Cannot be applied to contemporary society, increasing diversity fragements the collective conscience, there is no longer a single shared value system for religion to reinforce. For example; some religious cults such as; the people's temple used twisted religion to create a value system that deviates from equal society. 

• Malinowski - Religion helps individuals to cope with emotional stress that could undermine social solidarity.
• Situation 1 - When the outcome is important but is uncontrollale/uncertain; he studied the trobiand islanders who take part in rituals when they go ocean fishing to ensure a safe and succesful expedition.
• Gives people a sense of control, eases tension and gives them confidence to undertake hazerdous tasks, whilst also reinforcing group solidarity (a shared value of success and safety for the group fishing).
• Situation 2 - At times of life crises, events such as; birth, marriage and especially death that mark major and distruptive changes in social groups, religion helps to minimise the distruption. 
• For example; funeral rituals reinforce solidarity amongst survivors and the idea of immortality gives them comfort by denying death. Malinowski argues that death is the main reason that religious belief exists. 

• Religion creates and legitimates society's central values by sacralising them (making them sacred),
• Protestanism sacralised the core American values of individualism, meritocracy and self-discipline, which serve to promote value consensus and social stability, 
• It is also the primary source of meaning, answering 'ultimate questions' about the human condition, e,.g why do the good suffer and why people can die young. 
• These events often defy our sense of justice and make life appear meaningless which undermines our commitment to societies values, however religion enables people to adjust to unfortunate events and maintain stability. 
• One explanation could be that people suffer because it is a test of faith that will be rewarded in heaven; allowing individuals to perservere. 

Bellah: Civil religion

• A belief system that attaches sacred qualities to society itself, for example; in American civil religion is 'Americanism' and the 'American way of life'. 
• Integrates society in the way that America's churches cannot, unlike civil religion which claims the loyalty of all Americans to the nation-state and a belief in God.
• National Anthem = true American disregarding ethnic or reigious background. 

Functional alternatives -

• Non-religious beliefs and practices that perform functions similar to those of organised religion, e.g, reinforcing shared values or maintaining social cohesion
• For example; although civil religion involves a belief in God, other belief systems such as; the Soviet & Nazi Germany political beliefs & rituals united society the same.
• However this idea ignores what makes religion distinctive which is a belief in the supernatural. 

Criticisms -

• Neglects the negative aspects of religion as a source of oppression of the poor or women, (feminism & Marxism).
• Ignores religion as a source of conflict & division, in complex modern societies (e.g, Northern Ireland) where there is more than one religion it is hard to see how it unites people and promotes social integration.