Part of The Student Room Group

  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

Claims that the UK is now a secular society are wrong. Both religious activity and religious belief are flourishing. To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this view?

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

Claims that the UK is now a secular society are wrong. Both religious activity and religious belief are flourishing. To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this view? A hot sociological debate is that the UK has become a secular society. Sociologists have long been divided on this issue, contributing a variety of theories about secularisation. One theory supporting the fact we the UK is becoming secular are that we know have a more technological view on things. We tend to look for more scientific or technological explanations for why things happen rather than religious or supernatural. This contradicts the claims that the UK isn?t becoming secular and instead is providing us with explanations of the UK becoming more secular. ...read more.

Middle

However they will still attend important religious services such as birth, death and marriage. Leger agrees with Davie in that we are still religious and puts forward the theory of spiritual shopping. Leger says that children are no longer socialised by religion, parents let their children choose their identity for themselves ? they have become spiritual shoppers which means they choose their religion according to what reflects their needs and aspirations. Leger is suggesting that in society today we like to choose our religion rather than it being given to us meaning it will suit our needs better. In addition Stark and Bainbridge support the idea that we aren?t becoming secular. ...read more.

Conclusion

Postmodernist Lyon came up with the theory of Jesus in Disneyland which refers to the fact that religion is no longer a social institution but a cultural resource which people can draw upon if they wish for example religious events. This supports the idea that claims of the UK becoming secular are not true, because all that is really happening is that people just have more choice about what religion they follow and we also don?t need to attend religious institutions to be religious we can ?believe without belonging.? To conclude it is probably the case that the UK is becoming a secular society. However we must bear in mind the idea suggested by Heelas and Woodhead that argues we are becoming secular because we go to church to do spiritual activities rather than religious which suggests that evidence on this debate is far from conclusive. ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level Sociological Differentiation & Stratification section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related AS and A Level Sociological Differentiation & Stratification essays

  1. Critically examine the relationship between gender, religious participation and religious organisations

    This evidence suggests that female oppression is not solely due to religion, but due to the patriarchal system that has always been dominant. Sadaawi argues that the only way for women to improve their situation is to struggle for their own liberation.

  2. Assess sociological explanations for the increasing number of religious and spiritual organizations and movements ...

    They neither accept nor reject the world but simply live within it. They are even tolerant of other beliefs; such an example is the Pentecostalists. The last type which Wallis classifies is the world-affirming new religious movements. These do not have any form of organization and do not have specific rules because its members believe mostly in human growth.

  1. Assess the nature and extent of secularization in society today. Evidence surrounding church attendance ...

    the media as the result of scandals or an offence committed by church leaders and the number of empty churches suggests a decline in attendance. In spite of this, Parsons argued that the church has lost some of its functions as a result of industrialization, not directly as a result of disengagement.

  2. Modern Britain is now a secular society

    With the growth of political democracy in the 20th century, the role of the Church has changed as the basis of its power has been eroded by the development of political parties. The growth of scientific ideologies has meant that the Church no longer has a monopoly of knowledge, fatally

  1. Examine the extent to which husbands and wives now have a relationship based on ...

    Another problem is that judging the division by the concept of time taken to do tasks may be misleading due to many women with children being 'on call', meaning they may have to get up in the night to attend to their child or have continuous responsibilities such as preparing meals or keeping the house clean.

  2. Sociological theories and Healthcare.

    Feminists feel men are bad influences on women and they stop a woman from a achieving her potential. Feminists blame low fertility rates typically on the men as they feel they don't do enough for the woman and they have a lot of areas to improve.

  1. Assess the view that sociological arguments and evidence support functionalist views of the role ...

    Secondly, Marx believes that religion encourages believers to put off the pursuit of happiness whilst on earth and to work in accordance with the belief that they will be rewarded in heaven.

  2. Assess the view that religious beliefs and practices are changing to reflect a new ...

    include globalisation, the increased importance of the media and communications and the growth of consumerism. Globalisation refers to the growing interconnectedness of societies which has led to greatly increased movements of ideas and beliefs across national boundries. This has increased ideas & beliefs across national boundaries.

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work