evidence for secularisation

Question 1

Bruce - decline in the power of the church

Answer 1

• churches are in ruins or have been turned into pubs, restaurants etc
• church has seen a massive decline in people joining the clergy or church and these jobs are now poorly paid, with employment as a scientist having much more status in today’s society
• church has much less political influence than before, as the government are now more likely to listen to the advice of scientists
• media as providers of information to the masses have replaced the church

Question 2

criticisms of the decline in the power of the church theory

Answer 2

• employment by the church does still hold some status
• the church does influence politics, seen by the influence of the New Christian Right in the US and faith schools in the UK

Question 3

Wilson - desacralisation

Answer 3

rationalisation and scientific thinking has contributed to a decline in the social significance of religion, which is why the church is no longer so involved in a variety of institutions

Question 4

decline in religious beliefs

Answer 4

sociologists like Wilson suggested that a large proportion of society’s thoughts were preoccupied with the supernatural and superstition (Salem witch trials, creation story etc), and today the majority of evidence suggests people have moved away from this thinking and science has replaced religion for many aspects of peoples’ belief systems

Question 5

survey evidence of decline in religious beliefs

Answer 5

in 2005 a UK survey showed 38% of people still believed in a god compared to 60-70% in the 1980s

Question 6

criticisms of decline in religious beliefs theory

Answer 6

• problems of measurement (social desirability, open lying, interpretations of religion etc)
• strong religious belief is still evident in many cultures

Question 7

Brierley - decline of religious practices

Answer 7

says that the high point for churches in the UK was the turn of the 20th century with 28% of the adult population active members; by 2015 this had dropped to 10%, with only 2% going to church on a Sunday

Question 8

census evidence of decline in religion

Answer 8

in 2011, the census showed 4 million fewer Christians in the UK than in 2001, with the second largest category being no religion

Question 9

criticisms of decline in religious practices theory

Answer 9

• majority of evidence is official statistics which may not be valid or reliable
• although figures of western religions has declined, ethnic minority churches have remained stable and new religious groups have actually grown

Question 10

Berger - disenchantment

Answer 10

religious practices have declined due to disenchantment, where rational thought replaces religious thought; exposure to religious pluralism has led many to turn away from religion as the plurality of versions of the truth undermine one another

Question 11

Wilson - NRMs and secularisation

Answer 11

believes the growth of NRMs are commercial, superficial concerns of post-industrial society, meaning that they are the secular pretending to be religious, so the growth of NRMs is further evidence for secularisation

Question 12

criticisms of Wilson’s view of NRMs and secularisation

Answer 12

• heavily criticised in that not all NRMs are self-centred and indulgent
• overly dismissive of NRMs

Question 13

Lyotard - collapse of meta narratives (postmodernism)

Answer 13

in a post-modernist era the meta narratives provided by science and religion have collapsed so traditional institutional religion with its universal claim to the truth has been undermined

Question 14

Bauman - ‘crisis of meaning’ (postmodernism)

Answer 14

old traditional religions cannot cope with the ‘crisis of meaning’ in post-modern times and therefore have declined