Religion, Science, and Deviance Flashcards
Belief
Any proposition thought to be true
Belief System
A set of interrelated beliefs
Religion and Science
They are both belief systems
Belief Systems as Deviant
Deviance within groups that adhere to particular belief systems OR, entire belief system as deviant
Belief Systems as Social Typers of Deviance
When the “truths” of that belief system tell us who should be considered deviant & what the consequences should/will be
Religion in Canada - 2011
- Majority of Canadians identify with some sort of faith (growing proportion of Canadians who do not)
- Majority: Christian
- Colonization and immigration
- Still evident in much of Canadian culture
- Changes in religious proportions likely due to immigration - Secularization: decline of the influence of organized religion
- Are religious people “better” people? Do they have more respect?
Richard Dawkins’ Belief Scale
Strong Theist, De-facto theist, Weak Theist, Pure Agnostic, Weak Atheist, De-Facto Atheist, Strong Atheist
Strong Theist
I do not question the existence of God, I KNOW he exists.
De-facto Theist
I cannot know for certain but I strongly believe in God and I live my life on the assumption that he is there.
Weak Theist
I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God.
Pure Agnostic
God’s existence and non-existence are equally likely.
Weak Atheist
I do not know whether God exists but I’m inclined to be skeptical.
De-facto Atheist
I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbably and I live my life under the assumption that he is not there.
Strong Atheist
I am 100% sure that there is no God.
Religion As Deviance
- “Deviant” acts that occur within religious groups - e.g. abuse, child abuse
- Entire religious groups that are considered to be deviant - e.g. “deviant religions”
4 Types of Traditional Typologies
Ecclesia, Churches, Sects, Cults
Ecclesia
- A specific religious belief system that is adopted at a governmental level and becomes a nation’s “official religion”
- Religious freedom?
Churches
- Large and powerful religious groups, highly bureaucratic
- World’s major religions: Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Christianity
- Further divided into denominations - Churches can deviantize other churches
Sects
- Smaller religious groups that have usually broken away from larger churches
- Less established in society
- Formed as a result of reaction to the doctrine of larger church
- High levels of commitment - Example would be the Taliban
Cults
- Smaller than sects, more reactionary, oppositional doctrines
- Immense levels of commitment
- Example would be family of love
Factors That Determine Level of Tension in Deviant Religions
- Magnitude of differences (How different are the beliefs)
- Level of antagonism (How much do they hate the current system)
- Segregation (How much does the group want to separate themselves from the outside world)
Deviance in Sects
- Varied levels of tension with society
- Tensions: Bidirectional
- Sect may have certain levels of antagonism toward society
- Society may have certain levels of antagonism back - Deviancy amplification: becoming more extreme (in response to hostilities or social control efforts from outsiders)
Deviance in Cults
- Greater level of tension with society
- Popular images of cults -> mind control, violence, sexual abuse
- Most cults do not fit the images
- Some do fit the images
Heaven’s Gate Cult
- UFO religious group in San Diego, California founded in 1974 by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles
- Millenarianism: complete social transformation is coming
- Planet earth was about to be recycled, bodies were “vessels”
- March 1997: Marshall Applewhite and 38 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult commited suicide
- Brainwashing?
John de Ruiter
- Claims to be a “living embodiment of truth”
- Charismatic relationship: belief that a leader is “endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or exceptional powers or qualities” (Weber)
- “Cultic milieu”: a cultural underground that “continually giv[es] birth to new cults, absorbing the debris of the dead ones and creating new generations of cult-prone individuals”
- Demographics: white, middle aged, affluent, mostly women
John De Ruiter
- Claims to be a “living embodiment of truth”
- Charismatic relationship: belief that a leader is “endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or exceptional powers or qualities” (Weber)
- “Cultic milieu”: a cultural underground that “continually giv[es] birth to new cults, absorbing the debris of the dead ones and creating new generations of cult-prone individuals”
- Demographics: white, middle aged, affluent, mostly women
John De Ruiter: The Edmonton College of Integrated Philosophy
- West Edmonton
- 7 Million dollar building
- 4 meetings per week when not on tour
Social Control of Deviant Religions
- Human right: freedom of religion (Upheald by the United Nations, 1948)
- “Reasonable” violations of that freedom
- Threat to public health/order/rights of others
- This can lead government to supress religious freedoms
Anti-Cult Movement
1960s and 1970s, concerned parents created support groups to prevent children’s “brain washing” and spread information
Cult Awareness Groups
Today: Educate people about the dangers of cults, attempt to control cult activities, lobbying the government
Religion as a Social Typer of Deviance
- Religions participate in the social typing OF deviance
- They all argue that they provide us with the ultimate “truth” - Individual level -> personal beliefs dictate right/wrong for us and others
- Societal level -> blurred boundaries between religious belief systems and political belief systems = those labelled religiously deviant can now be politically deviant as well
- Religion can sometimes make people politically (or criminally) deviant
- Witch Hunts, Residential Schooling, Victorian Child-Savers
Science
Knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths of the operation of general laws, especially as obtained and tested through scientific method
1. Socially typed
2. Socially types others
3. Serves a social control function
4. Subject to social control
Science as Deviance
- Claims about the nature of reality
- Ethical/Moral Claims within the belief system
Deviant Scientists
- Engage in Scientific Misconduct
- Belong to a discipline not recognized by the scientific community as “real” science
Scientific Misconduct
- Scientists also engage in deviance, similarly to other professions
- “scientific misconduct” - fabrication of data, falsification, ethical violations, plagiarism, changing data results, “Inventing” research, ignoring or deleting contradictory data - Found in all disciplines
- But frequently associated with biomedical fields
- More likely to be examined/detected
- Receives the most research money
- Very difficult to identify (goes unnoticed/unreported)
2 Explanations of Scientific Misconducts
Bad apple/bad person theory, Iceberg Theory
Bad apple/bad person theory
- A few “bad apples” spoil the barrel
- Psychological problems/personality/ “bad” people
- Need to locate these bad apples and remove them to not spoil the entire barrel
- Misconduct is rare, because scientists search for “truth”
Iceberg Theory
1.Structure of science encourages deviance
2. Immense pressures on scientists (i.e., “Publish or Perish”) increases the likelihood of misconduct
3. Unlikely to be detected
Alice Goffman Controversy
- Published a book called “On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City”
- Book examines the impact of mass incarceration and policing on low income African American urban communities
- Anonymous letter on multiple factual errors in the book.
- Various contradictions in the book.
- She moved in with two poor young black men, and writes the book as a black man who is wanted by the police without realizing her privileges. This was a bit offensive and insensitive.
- She confesses to her alleged involvement in a felony (conspiracy to commit murder, accomplice to a major felony)
- One of her participants murdered, and she wanted retaliation.
- When this happened, the other participant wanted to pursue this killer, and she drove him.
Scientific Misconduct: The Corporatization of Science
- Increasing ties between science and industry
- Industry is funding more research than ever before
- Pressure: to make funders happy so they continue giving money - Most drug research is done in commercial centres -> post-academic science
- Relationship between corporate funding and positive research findings
- Companies face economic sanctions for misconduct
Deviant Science/Pseudo Science
- Deviant Science - an entire scientific belief system is questioned
- If enough doubt OR rejected as legitimate science: Non-science
- Examples of Pseudo-sciences: astrology, magnetic therapy, Bible Codes - Some “deviant” sciences come to be accepted over time
- Inherently conservative nature of science
- “scientific worldview”: presumption that a claim is false until proven beyond a doubt
Science as a Social Typer of Deviance
- Scientists as “experts” in today’s society
- Few people question experts because of their expertise - Scientists: Can effectively “socially type” people, and Have power to make claims and be believed
- We can see this with
- European colonization
- Eugenics
- Medicalization
European Colonization
- Colonization: largely “justified, explained” by religion and later, science
- “Legitimized” on the basis of Social Darwinism
- Just as biological species evolve over time, so do human societies
- Societies evolve from “primitive” to “civilized” - Deviantizing primitive cultures is “for their own good”
- Largely tied to Eugenics: some groups are more evolved and hence, biologically superior to other groups
Eugenics
- Based on Social Darwinism
- A set of beliefs and practices that aims at improving the genetic quality of a human population
- Made distinctions between superior (desired) groups and “inferior” (and undesired) groups
- racial purity - Discourage reproduction among the “unfit”
- Criminal, low IQ, promiscuous women, the poor, etc. - Involuntary/Forced sterilization: policies that forcefully prevent certain “inferior” groups from reproducing
- The apex = Nazi genocidal acts
Eugenics in Alberta
- The government of Alberta passed its Sexual Sterilization Act in 1928
- ‘Mentally deficient’ people were sterilized
- Amended in 1937: no consent necessary, also applied to those incapable of ‘intelligent parenthood’
- Over 2,800 individuals were sterilized
- The act was finally repealed in 1972
Forced Sterilization of Indigenous Peoples in Canada
- Aboriginal peoples were easy targets for the new amendment
- Especially with regard to being thought to be incapable of ‘intelligent parenthood’
Leilani Muir
- Admitted to the Provincial Training School for Mental Defectives in Red Deer in 1955
- IQ score considered sufficient grounds for her sterilization (Under 70)
- Institutionalized until she was 20 years old.
- In 1989, discovered that she had been sterilized
- Sued Alberta government for wrongful confinement and wrongful sterilization, and won!
