Assess the claim that Religion is a Conservative Force

Marx also quoted that religion was the “opium of the people”, meaning that religion acted like a drug helping people to cope with pain and suffering in their life brought about by exploitation. If religion acts as opium, deadening the pain, then this is also helping to stop social change, as the masses will have some comfort from their suffering and be able to put up with it.

It could be argued that Durkheim, who focuses on a functionalist perspective, also views religion as a conservative force. For Durkheim, religion acts as the ‘moral glue’ that holds society together, and its rituals and teachings help to reinforce the shared norms and values that he believes were essential to keep society free from destructive conflict. Durkheim, in fact, also believed that religion served to maintain the inequalities in society, where Marx saw this as a bad thing, Durkheim saw it in a more positive light, since acceptance of inequality reduced the chance of conflict. Marx thought that revolutionary conflict would be a good thing, as it would destroy capitalism and the bourgeoisie, while Durkheim saw conflict as bad, as it risked destroying the ‘collective conscience’ that was the basis of society.

However evidence suggests that religion does not ‘inevitably’ act as a conservative force. Weber, for example, in his work ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’, showed how the early Calvinists saw work as a ‘calling’ which they should follow with all their efforts, as by doing so they were honouring God. Those efforts, together with their belied in the need for a lifestyle without any form of luxury, led to them gaining large amounts of money, which were then used for investment in the mills, mines and factories of early capitalism. Weber argued that, while Calvinist beliefs did not cause capitalism, the practices which followed from those beliefs helped industrial capitalism to increase. Therefore, creating a link between a particular kind of religious belief and a huge social change.

An example of religion wishing to bring about social change is the radical Islamic movement, the Nation of Islam, which was closely associated with the civil rights movement in America. Followers were taught that they should reclaim Islam as their cultural birthright and take their rightful place in society, and should resist being treated as slaved and ‘second class citizens’. The aim of the Nation of Islam is black segregation, with followers lining in their own self-sufficient society, with a strict moral code.

Finally, the ‘liberation theology’ of South America, where radical Roman Catholic Protestants and nuns taught that it was the people’s duty to rise up against oppression, is a further example to show that religious ideas can be associated with social change.

In conclusion, the evidence suggests that in many cases religion does act as a conservative force in society, helping to maintain the status quo and prevent change, particularly revolutionary social change. However other evidence suggests that there is nothing ‘inevitable’ about this process, and that religious ideas can also be associated with a move for social change.