Religion and Science

Question 1

What is a belief system?

Answer 1

A cohesive set of interrelated propositions that are thought to be true (beliefs!)
ex Religion! or Science!

Question 2

How does deviance interact with belief systems?

Answer 2

1) Belief systems themsevles can be deciatnized

2) Belief ssystems can deviantize others

Question 3

What are the stats on religion in Canada? Which most popular, trends over time,

Answer 3

• Christianity most common - 65% (1 catholocism, 2 protestantism, 3 christian orthodox)
  after that “no religious affiliation” is next most common
  then Islam #3 @ 3%
• most canadians stick with parents religion
• there has been a general decrease in ppl attending religious events/services/etc
• immigration policies have def ompacted religion demographic = large increase in non christian religions

Question 4

What is secularization?

Answer 4

Process by which religion increasingly loses its influence

Question 5

Is Canada secularized? How has secularization ipmacted/not impacted social institutions?

Answer 5

Canada is kindaaa secularized, but depends:
- Religion is less intense most places
- depends on religion definition so need solid definition to decide if yes or no secularized (ex does it depend on church attendance or just values/institutional ways)
Social institutions…
- yes secularized bc stores no longer closed sundays and no morning prayers in schools
- not secularized bc christian federal holidays still, tax breaks for religious organizations, publickly funded religious schools still, swear on bible in court (not required but very regular)

Question 6

What was the Quiet Revolution in Quebec?

Answer 6

Quebec became much more secularized around 1960s.

• ppl saw catholic chruch as more and more oppressive, noticed it was impacting kids and other stuff
• just stopped attending church and supporting, quietly without riots protests or any of that
• surfaced lots of discussion on religious accomodations

Question 7

How did Durkheim view religion?

Answer 7

It was a positive thing for social cohesion! (avoid anomie)
- connects ppl so they have better life
Also gives ppl something sacred that transcends the every day banality of life (‘binary bt sacred and profane’)

Question 8

What are the issues with ‘spiritual’ vs ‘religious’?

Answer 8

What exactly is the difference when ppl say “im not religious but i am spiritual”
Theres a hierarchy in society that places those who are only spiritual at the bottom and religious+spiritual at top

Question 9

Is religion monolithic (not structured/solid)? Why?

Answer 9

Tensions bt religious groups and within religions, hierarchies exist
‘New’ religions appear, can become recognized as ‘real’ and tehrefore get all the tax breaks etc

Question 10

What is the debate with private vs public religious expression?

Answer 10

Ppl allow others to be religious but only if in their own home/church privately, want them to be able to seperate religion from work etc
– hard to do esp if religious values are extremely imbedded in who you are, tough to ask someone to divorce selves of that but also cant just let ppl use religious values as excuse for homophobia, pro=life bullshit

Question 11

What are the 4 classifications for religious groups?

Answer 11

Ecclesia = official state religion (ex. Islam in Iran) (if there is one, pretty much all other religions seen as deviant)
Church = large established religious groups, formalized rituals and long histories (ex. catholicism)
Sect = smaller breakaway group with more rigid membership and behaviours requirements (Niebuhr 1929 sect is "church of the disinherited" bc started with ppl who left/were rejected from other groups)
Cult = small, often enticing leader, most deviant in society, seen as afront to established societal norms

Question 12

What impacts which groups will be deviantized?

Answer 12

** Tension with others
- how different from broader society, extreme
- how much conflict with society
- self-segregation (some ask followers to distance selves from society)
These tensions goes both ways (ex. group self seperates but society also want to push them out)

Question 13

How are sects deviant?

Answer 13

• require more commitment than churches (if mess up you goneeee not just reprimanded and forgiven)
• often emphasize the rewards of the afterlife
• diversity among sects = denominational sect vs established sect

Question 14

What is a denominational sect? What is an established sect?

Answer 14

Denom = increasingly integrated into larger society, potentially considered denomination of larger church (ex: 7th day adventists - also try to help with support schools etc)
Established = maintains higher degree of tension with larger society, more separated (ex: Jehovahs Witnesses)

Question 15

How are cults deviant?

Answer 15

• charismatic leader that convinces people to distance from society, compelling msg about new way of life
• often demand members abandon old life for new lifestyle (sever all ties, abandon family)
• some practices unconventional so ppl see as deviant (sexual sharing/polyamory, no material possessions, mass suicide)
• • more tension with larger society than sects

Question 16

How have cults been impacted by the media? What are the 4 tools the media uses?

Answer 16

Media framed the ‘cult-menace’ idea in 1960s

i) one sided sources (ppl who ‘escaped’, authorities, no perspective of those inside and happy abt it)
ii) superficial coverage = no investigative journalism to go in and actually understand/experience
iii) sensationalist stereotypes, exaggerative language (‘brainwashing’ etc)
iv) over report atypical events (only show the cults that do crazy shit or only the abnormal events that occur) = ppl exposed to few cases and form bias
- also frame as folk devils and create moral panic around young/easily influenced ppl joining ; ‘conversion’/’brainwashing’

Question 17

What aspects have added to the cult narrative created by the media?

Answer 17

• members shown in distinctive clothing
• show cults located in isolated areas (suggest marginalization)
• members shown living in communes (always stuck together)
• group belief system often portrayed as delusional (same narrative not applied to churches/established religious groups)
• group peculiarities (beliefs or practices) often made visible

Question 18

What was Susan Palmer’s take on the cult image in the media?

Answer 18

SHe showed the group “Raelians” from Quebec; led by guy named Rael, promoted sexual freedom, claimed to have created 1st human clone, claimed that aliens created humans in a lab

• she attempted to challenge the dominant view of cults as deviant/abnormal
• made sure to emphasize the fact that this group did not indoctrinate children and allowed people to fully chose on their own to join and commit to baptism
• she showed that shouldnt always believe medias portrayal of things, cults arent all just violence and weird shit!

Question 19

What are the 3 ways deviant religions are socially controlled?

Answer 19

1) Media! (have huge influence on how cults/religions are viewed)
2) Governments
3) anti-cult and counter-cult groups/movements

Question 20

How do governments socially control religions/cults?

Answer 20

Charter of Rights and freedoms guarantees to a reasonable extent that everyone have freedom of conscience and religion, but some cult practices are considered illegal so gov can regulate that to a certain extent.
ex: polygamy is technically a criminal offense, but homie in Bountiful BC with the massive polygamist family and 27 wives and 100+ children fought polygamy charges with the fact that it is his religious right to do that.
Ended up going to supreme court and only there was he actually found guilty bc some of the women were underage, coerced, etc
SOOO gov guarantee religious freedom up until it really damages society like the polygamist issue did here

Question 21

What is a counter-cult movement? What about anti-cult?

Answer 21

Counter cult:
- focus on groups they think have misinterpreted the bible
- generally opposed to religious freedoms (usually from fundamentalist denominations)
- mainly want deviantize others so that ppl join them instead
- are deviantized themselves, so less power
Anti-cult:
- newer than counter cult
- only focused on showing badness of cults, not on enlisting ppl into their own religion
(ex: parents whose children joined hippie cults in 60s)

Question 22

What are 3 main examples of how belief systems deviantize others?

Answer 22

a) Witch persecutions (14th century): led by christians against mainly women especially non religious ones
b) Residential school system woot (1800-end of 1900s): led by christians, indig kids were required to go, were taught math and other school subjects but also taught how to reject their culture and adopt european way, abuse occurred and there exists lasting trauma on the kids and their kids and the whole damn culture they really just fuckin eradicated
c) Victorian child savers (late 1800s-early1900s): christian (more protestant than catholic) aka social gospel movement! they believed they needed to do work on earth to be saved in afterlife so searched out kids who needed to be ‘saved’ from their poor families (even if were still well cared for and happy, i guess bc poor = immoral or somethin)

Question 23

What are the two ways science can be deviantized?

Answer 23

1) scientific misconduct = one scientist seen as deviant

2) pseudo-science = entire section of science is deviantized

Question 24

What is scientific misconduct? What area of specialization is it most common in and why?

Answer 24

Scientific misconduct = scientific practices deemed unacceptable/inappropriate bc manipulates research outcomes (ex: plagiarism, data falsification)
Most common in biomedical research bc under the most scrutiny!:
- most funding so ppl feel pressured to show the funds went to something significant/important
- break through research often here so more ppl interested/checkin it out
- more public funding so public want to know where their money went

Question 25

What are the two potential explanations for scientific misconduct?

Answer 25

1) Bad Apple Theory: theres always someone bad wherever you go, science itself has nothing wrong
2) Iceberg theory: scientific misconduct that is actually surfaced is just ‘the tip of the iceberg’, there are many other instances where ppl dont get caught or it doesnt get publicized (all scientists know someone who has done it, many have themselves)

Question 26

What is the support for why iceberg theory is true? (aka why would there actually be SO much scientific misconduct?)

Answer 26

1) pressure to publish: especially within academia need to keep at a certain level of published stuff, need it to get tenure, just to even get better status/street cred bro
2) publishing bias: wanna give people what they want to hear aka the positive happy results, even when negative/’zero evidence of..’ results are just as useful, piblishers just more likely to print positive results so ppl fake it
3) science as a corporation: has tons of influence on the field, impose bias, have underlying motivations

Question 27

How does the corporation side of science impact the amount of scientific misconduct?

Answer 27

• profit motivated! desire for money may outweigh desire to find a cure, etc, invest in places with lots of demand and disposable income (science for rich ppl with hair loss, not poor people with tuberculosis!)
• researchers can be financially compensated (so end up in “if this isnt the result, we cant continue to support your research” or just entice ppl with money bc yknow everyone wants to suppporttheir family n shit, also could pay to advertise their product and say its the best one
• direct financial ties: scientist may be working for pharmaceutical company or have shares in the company, so it is in their best interest to misrepresent
• industry sponsor: can control research and only allow publishing of the positive info (Nancy Olivieri example: wanted to tell ppl that the drug in the experiment was doing more harm than good but sponsor said nope you dont own that info we do so you cant spread it)
• new research centres outside of academic research, often in poorer countries where ppl likely more easily motivated by money (more desperate)

Question 28

What is the social construction of science?

Answer 28

What is considered legitimate changes over time!

• evolution used to be debated, now widely accepted
• some ppl still think of accupuncture as weird but more normal now, and heading even further toward standard/completely accepted

Question 29

What was Alan Young’s perspective on the social construction of science?

Answer 29

“Harmony of Delusions: Inventing PTSD” book 1995
- he suggested that PTSD was ‘invented’ in the sense that it didnt use to be scientifically legit, and now it is
Why?
- ppl came back from Vietnam war with psychiatric issues, most important symptom was the flashbacks/memory related, which led to the inclusion of this symptom in the PTSD definition, and made it more recognized than just the anxiety/depression/etc after a tough event
- once defined, needed to research PTSD and decide how to quantify it so gov could decide who received compensation
— this shows us that science can be altered/corrupted by politics (@ power reflexive theory)

Question 30

Why should we think twice before thinking of science as the hard, unbiased truth?

Answer 30

Because of social construction!
- social/political issues/opinions decide what even is considered important to research and further understand
- also decides what should be considered legitimate
- different perspectives on the problem can sway legitimacy/scientific categorizations (biological/psychological/sociological/cultural lens)
So bias can show up in many different ways, and is actually there right from the start

Question 31

How does science deviantize others?

Answer 31

1) Social darwinism

2) medical/psychiatric diagnoses = ppl deviantized bc of them

Question 32

How is social darwinism used to deviantize?

Answer 32

Idea that evolved from primitive humans to civilized
= suggests that can socially create a better more civilized society
- this reasoning was used to rationalize colonization and eugenics programs noicee
— Eugenics in Canada: Alberta (and Ontario?) setup a program, sexually sterilized people without their consent or knowledge sometimes, and ofc realized after that the more commonly affected demographics were the mentally ill, indigenous, criminals, sexually promiscuous women (bc these ppl are inferior so if we only allow the superior ppl to repopulate, society will be better off!)

Question 33

How can medical diagnoses deviantize people?

Answer 33

• People get a defined label, sometimes becomes master status type issue (used to be just ‘odd’ or ‘introverted’, now labelled as mentally ill = much worse stigma/connotation)
• Responsibilizes patients = ‘theres treatment for that, you have no excuse to miss work/be sad/all that other bullshit’ - patient should be able to handle it themselves and be able to function like ‘everyone else’

Question 34

What does the future of science hold for further deviantizing?

Answer 34

Science beginning to be able to modify/access more genetic info, so if someone refuses to check that/take it into account they may be deviantized

ex: able to analyze amniotic fluid from pregnancy to get info on sex, potential health issues, etc, so family could use that info and even consider abortion if unfavourable (wanted a boy but didnt get a boy, didnt want a baby with down syndrome, etc) sooo those who yknow dont wanna abort the ‘unfavourable’ baby get deviantized
ex: also potential for meds etc to make kids taller, so if parents chose to not make their kid taller, theyll soon be one of the outliers stuck in a world of tall people, and will be deviantized (both kid and parents)