W5.2 Religion

1) SUMMARY

    Religion is a group's collective beliefs and rituals about the supernatural, and sociologists' primary goal is to understand religions. Durkheim's concept of religion is an attempt to address existential questions by creating a distinction between sacred and profane things. Church typology is a classification of religions that protect religion for all members of a culture and do not tolerate religious competition, such as the Roman Catholic Church. Religion serves major tasks in society: Provides social control, meaning, and purpose to existential questions and can even help maintain social inequality (refer to Marx's "religion is the opium of the people.") Denominations contribute to societal cohesion through shared rituals and beliefs, and they are created when churches lose their religious monopoly. Sects and cults are new religious groups that go against their parent religion.

2) NEW ITEMS

    The first new item I found to be interesting was the fact that three of the major world religions (Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism) originated as cults. From the perspective of a fan of crime-related media, cults have always been associated with bad behaviors and wrong beliefs that often lead to worst-case scenarios (refer to the massacre of Jonestown). But if we think about it, major world religions can still lead to worst-case scenarios, such as justifying acts of violence and crimes because of a "divine intervention". The second item I found interesting is the fact that women are more religious than men. This is not new to me because as a recurrent member of the catholic church throughout my childhood I can remember noticing how the church meetings mainly consisted of women and children, with a few men here and there. The controversy here is how religions have a common tendency to belittle women and create gender roles that cater to the creation of more inequalities between men and women.

3) DISCUSSION

"Why do people often say that you shouldn't talk about religion in polite company? Why is religion special in this regard?"

    People often shy away from the discussion of religions even if it's a trivial one due to their lack of knowledge and selfishness. Not everyone who does not like to talk about religion is a bad person, however, when an individual finds another and the topic of religion comes up morals, values, and beliefs are now visible to each other and this can damage whichever kind of relationship these individuals hold. This is due to prejudice against the societies involved with certain religions. I have been guilty of this prejudice before, as a catholic woman that has been raised in a country with strong catholic values, talking about religion with someone who practices Islam would interest me to get to know more about their beliefs outside of what the media portrays their religion to be.

Zulema Gaxiola