Critically discuss the problems faced by sociologists who attempt to define and measure religion and secularisation.

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Critically discuss the problems faced by sociologists who attempt to define and measure religion and secularisation.

        When speaking about secularisation, the same problems are faced as when discussing religion. The issue is difficult to discuss because there is not one consensual definition to the term. Even if there was one single definition upon which everyone agreed on, views about measuring and interpreting the data would vary. This is the problem faced by sociologists today when attempting to establish whether secularisation is occurring in modern day Britain.

        A common classification of secularisation is the decline of religion and the impact it has on society. Wilson’s definition of the term is: “The process whereby religious thinking, practice and institutions loose social significance”. However this is open to criticism. Perhaps it is not the fact that views, thinking and practices are less significant, they may just occur less. For those who still believe, religious ideas are still highly significant and hold valuable morals that we should follow. Berger expressed his idea of secularisation as: ‘the process by which sectors of society and culture are removed from the domination of religious institutions and symbols’. He believes that in western societies, there are more and more people who look upon religion as having little impact on their lives. Shiner implies that the term secularisation should be used very carefully as it lacks precision. He looked at research on the subject and found that the term is interpreted in six different ways. These different meanings range from the simple decline of religion to conformity with this world. This emphasises the confusion around the meaning of secularisation.

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        Weber was a key thinker in the secularisation debate. He came up with four elements in the general trend towards secularisation. The first one is desacrilisation. This is where events are explained more scientifically with less emphasis on the supernatural. An example of this is lack of belief in miracles among society.  Disenchantment is similar in that it involves the loss of enchantment from social thought, myth no longer plays a large part. Rationalisation was described as simply social action being based on rational thought rather than magical means. The last trend is the ‘iron cage’. This is what ...

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