Is religion a conservative force

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Natashia Pettet 13.1

Is religion a conservative force?

‘Conservative forces’ in this context can be defined as forces, which protect the existing social order, and radical forces being the opposite of conservative forces are those, which promote change.

‘’ Religion is essentially a conservative force in society and if that is true than it would also be true that religion can also play a part in social change.’

To evaluate whether religion is a conservative force or a force for social change I am going to first look at the different perspectives of what role religion takes in a society.

The functionalist perspective on religion examines it in terms of society’s needs and is mainly concerned with the contribution religion makes to meeting these needs; Durkheim presented an argument from the functionalist perspective he stated that all societies divide the world into two separate categories: The ‘sacred and the profane’. Durkheim also put forward another argument, called totemism. Durkheim studied an aboriginal society “the most basic form of religion. Durkehim believed that the totem pole was a symbol and its true nature was symbolic of the aboriginal society that worships the totem pole. To put it simply he points out that they are worshipping their own society. This is because the totem stands for the values of the society that worships it. He also argued how they were completely dependant on society itself.

Durkheim believed that social life is impossible without the shared values and moral beliefs that form ‘collective consensus’. He believes that without these norms and values there would be no social order, control, solidarity or cooperation between people and basically no society itself. He argues that the worshipping of society strengthens these values and beliefs that form the basis of social life. Functionalist theories like Durkheim establish the thought that society shapes religion.

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Marxists such as Weber uses a one sided approach in which religion leads to social change, and is shown in his argument of the role of Calvinism in the development of capitalism. Weber believes that ideas can influence the social structure. He adopts the social action approach and demonstrates how different religions lead to different economic outcomes and shows how other religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam all are religion in which have different morals beliefs and values and so are not suited to the development of Calvinism and he shows how religious values can encourage and promote social ...

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