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"In modern society, religious beliefs and religious behaviour are changing rather than declining" assess arguments and evidence for and against this view.
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| Submitted: Wed Oct 08 2003
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"In modern society, religious beliefs and religious behaviour are changing rather than declining" assess arguments and evidence for and against this view There are two main ways in which religion is defined. 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 way is functional definitions this defines religion in terms of the function it performs for society. This is what Marx called "the opium of the masses" and a form of social cement, this means TV or football matches could be considered religious. Wilson (1982) stated that those who defined religion in substantive terms are more likely to support the secularisation thesis because they can show that religious beliefs has declined as people accept other more rational explanations of the world. The idea...
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