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WHAT IS RELIGION ?SOCIOLOGY UPSC


 WHAT IS RELIGION?

RELIGION IS FORM OF PERSONAL DELIGHT FOR SOME OTHER ITS A HABIT.

RELIGION? Durkheim described it with the ethereal statement that it consists of “things that surpass the limits of our knowledge.

MAX WEBER believed Protestant values influenced the rise of capitalism and helped create the modern world order.

Karl Marx (1818–1883) also studied the social impact of religion. He believed religion reflects the social stratification of society and that it maintains inequality and perpetuates the status quo.


RELIGION HOLDIND DIFFERENT MEANING TO DIFFRENT PERSON 

  • SOURCE OF SALVATION
  •  PURIFIES HEART AND SOUL
  •  OBSTACLE TO MODERNITY
  •  OPIUM OF THE MASSES
 Durkheim argued that “religion happens” in society when there is a separation between the profane (ordinary life) and the sacred . A rock, for example, isn’t sacred or profane as it exists. But if someone makes it into a headstone, or another person uses it for landscaping, it takes on different meanings—one sacred, one profane.

Sociology of religion does not ask, whether god exists. Rather, sociology of religion asks, if people believe that god exists, 'why do they believe' , 'how do they come to believe?, 'how do they describe their god?, and 'is there any relationship between their description of god and their social conditions?

ORIGIN

Paul Radin (1938), emphasised the emotional aspects of religion. According to this school of thought relation is nothing but pre-modern person's emotional response to overcome a frightening situation. Religion, in this case, helps one to overcome one's feelings of powerlessness.

Edward B. Tylor (1881) and Herbert Spencer (1882) can be called the intellectualists, because they opined that pre-modern man had to evolve religion in order to explain the phenomena of dreams, echoes and deaths.In their view, religion might vanish when its explanatory function is taken over by science.

Functionalism

It provides social support and social networking, offering a place to meet others who hold similar values and a place to seek help (spiritual and material) in times of need Finally, religion promotes social control: it reinforces social norms such as appropriate styles of dress, following the law, and regulating sexual behaviour.

CRITICAL SOCIOLOGY

According to this perspective, religion has been used to support the “divine right” of oppressive monarchs and to justify unequal social structures, like India’s caste system.

FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE 

women are typically the ones to socialize children into a religion, they have traditionally held very few positions of power within religions. A few religions and religious denominations are more gender equal, but male dominance remains the norm of most.

1.Polytheism Multiple gods Ancient Greeks and Romans

2.Monotheism Single god Judaism, Islam 

3.Atheism No deities Atheism 

4.Animism Nonhuman beings (animals, plants, natural world) Indigenous nature worship (Shinto) 

5.Totemism Human-natural being connection Ojibwa (First Nations)

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