Secularisation in the UK Topic 3

Question 1

What is the secularisation thesis?

Answer 1

This is the idea that religion is of declining importance for individual and societies.

Question 2

What does wilson argued about secularisation?

Answer 2

Wilson identifies that there is a long term process of secularisation, ‘the process whereby religious beliefs, practices and institutions lose social significance

Question 3

What evidence supports the secularisation thesis?

Answer 3

British social attitudes survey shows a huge increase in the percentage of adults who identify as having ‘no religion.’
1963-3%
2014-48%

Question 4

How does church attendance support the secularisation thesis?

Answer 4

• 1851 census of religious worship showed that 40% of adults in Britain attended church on Sunday.
• By 2015 about 5% of adults attended church on Sundays.
• The english church census 2006- attendance has declined more in the catholic church of england than in smaller organisations

Question 5

What are the statistics on the decline of baptism?

Answer 5

Baptism in the anglican church
1970- 672 per 1000 births
2011-120 per 1000 births

Question 6

What are the statistics that show the decline of weddings at church?

Answer 6

Weddings in church
1971-60% of weddings were in church
2012- 30% of weddings were in church

Question 7

What are the evaluations of using statistics to measure secularisation?

Answer 7

-Statistics are unreliable as religious organisations do not use a standardised way of measuring attendance or ‘belonging’

Question 8

What is an example of how religious organisations measure attendance?

Answer 8

• Catholic churches estimates the catholic population in the UK
• The Anglican church has a membership register

Question 9

What are the 2 ways religious institutions have become less influential according to the secularisation thesis?

Answer 9

• less influence on people’s lives

- declining clergy

Question 10

How has religion had less influence on people’s lives?

Answer 10

The church performs fewer functions than they did in the past and is no longer seen as a source of knowledge e.g. education, taking care of the sick

Question 11

What evidence supports declining clergy?

Answer 11

Between 1965 and 2011, the number of catholic priests fell by 30%

Question 12

What are the statistics shown on the british social attitudes survey that shows a decline in the belief in God?

Answer 12

• Between 1991 and 2009, the number of people that ‘believe and always have’ decreased from 46% to 36%
• In the same period, the number of people that ‘did not believe’ increased from 24% to 35%

Question 13

What problems might there be with using surveys to measure levels of religious beliefs?

Answer 13

• ethical problems, people may view this as personal and sensitive
• people may lie, social desirability effect.

Question 14

What are the evaluations of the secularisation thesis?

Answer 14

• The secularisation thesis is flawed, as it assumes there was a ‘golden age of faith’ where nearly everyone believed in God.
• lacks validity, few historical evidence to support this
• lack of representativeness, surviving records are based on the views of a small , privileged section of the population