Religion in Society

... Religion. 1) Ways in which religion can influence social change? Many sociologists have different interpretations on how religion influences social change. Functionalists see religion to be a positive thing as it reinforces norms and values. Functionalists would state that religion 'reinforces collective conscience'. They see religion to provide consensus and is necessary for stability in society. Where as Marxists see religion to be something, which just makes oppression more bearable. Marxists state that religion acts as a tool of social control, maintaining the existing system of exploitation and reinforcing the existing stratification order. 2) Problems with defining religion in modern society? There are two main ways in which religion is defined in modern society. Substantive definitions define a religious belief system as involving relations between the "natural" and the "supernatural" ideas therefore religion is defined in terms of structure and content of people's beliefs not what religion does for them. The other

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