Another Functionalist believer is that of Malinowski. He had the same ideas as that of Durkheim, being that religion reinforces social norms and values and promotes social solidarity.
All of the aspects named above stress that religion is a positive aspect which helps the structure of society and keeps society in harmony, and in a state anything but that of anomie.
There are many good harmonising factors which arise from religion, one being ceremonies, like weddings and christenings. Weddings and Christenings are seen as sacred moments in life which harmonise people and join people in the religious way of life.
Christmas and Easter are also big, celebrated good aspects of religion. People throughout the world celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus each year, Easter is also celebrated as a good aspect of religion as it is rejoicing Jesus being brought back to life.
However, to every argument there are two sides, the other side being that of the Marxist perspective. This perspective stresses the conflict which is caused by religion. Karl Marx suggests that religion is subordinated on the subject of class, and that religion is riddled with exploitation and oppression. Marx expresses that religion is based around class and economic principles, being highly capitalist. The Marxists associate religion to be an instrument of oppression. The Marxists express that religion causes much conflict and is used for working class to soften the blow of exploitation of their lives on earth, by promoting the idea that they will have ‘eternal life’ in heaven when they die.
Marxism believes that religion causes more bad than good, being the total opposite side of the argument to the Functionalist. Another perspective which coincides with Marxism is that of the Feminists.
The feminists express that women are devalued by different religious beliefs causing more harm than good in religion. They argue that religion is highly male dominated and that religion is a patriarchal society. They express that religion highly contributes to the oppression which women face. Beauvoir suggests that men have control over religious beliefs and that religion gives false beliefs, similar to that of the Marxists, for women’s sufferings on earth by the reward of heaven.
Holm also gives examples of where religion causes more harm than good, as women are oppressed whilst they are on their menstrual cycle as they cannot enter sacred religious places as menstruation is seen as ‘polluting’.
However, there are many bad, conflicting factors which arise from religion. The conflict most close to home is that of the Ireland clash between the Protestants and the Catholics. For more than 30 years there has been a violent and bitter sectarian division in Ireland. In the violent fighting between the Catholics and Protestants there have been 3,636 people killed and 36,000 furthermore injured. The years in Ireland have been seen as religious bitterness and conflict. The Catholics nowadays belong to their single unit known as Ireland, whilst the Protestants remain in Northern Ireland still in association with the UK. The two communities remain deeply suspicious of each other and so the legacy of antagonism and mistrust continues.
Another religious conflict is that of the Arabs and the Jews. Conflict over Palestine-Israel has evolved from an Arab-Jewish conflict into a Palestinian-Israeli or Palestinian-Jewish conflict and a Muslim-Jewish conflict. This divergence is a genuine conflict between the Arab countries and the West. Like the Ireland dispute, this quarrel has been going on for many years and still hasn’t been completely resolved.
I thus believe, from what I have stated above, that in my opinion religion causes more bad than good. From the numerous disputes which have happened for many years, I believe that religion causes much more conflict and anger rather than consolidating people in one belief. Religion disputes costs thousands of innocent lives each year. Religion can bind and unify a nation, but it can also cause death and segregation.
