W6.1 Sociology of religion

1. Summarization
    Within sociology, religion is also a study. Studying religion by the likes of especially Emile Durkheim, but also Karl Marx and Max Weber, distanced itself from other social studies. Unlike philosophy, sociology does not try to undermine the validity of beliefs. Marx viewed religion as a tool for capitalism to justify suppressing the truth. Science was in his eyes a way of replacing faith with reason. Durkheim studied the social cohesion of societies. Anything that connects a society can be a religion. A unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things. Weber looked at religion from a perspective as to why imperfections exist. He found that religion helped shape modern capitalism. Two related actual phenomena are secularization and globalization. Secularization is the effect of decreasing the importance of religion in society. According to theories there has always been a link between religion and globalization.

2. What was interesting/what did you learn?
    What I particularly find interesting is how the study of religion has contributed to the existence of sociology itself. In addition, the particular views of Karl Marx written in this article fascinated me. To change religion for science to propagate the truth. The reason why I find it fascinating is that in a lot of modern countries, this is incredibly present thought. Similarly, the ideas of Mark Weber interest me. I learned how something like religion might have impacted the rise of capitalism. As the beliefs started emphasizing the need for financial success more.

3. Discussion points
    Talking about religiosity. To put it simply the level of intenseness in which people live their religion. With the rise of secularization in most modern countries and shifting centres of world religions; what do you think the future of religion will be in the next 100 years? Will Islam take over as the largest religion in followers? Will Christianity undergo a resurgence? Will faith disappear at all or will it simply change in form to that what we might already know, but don't commonly perceive as religion?

Jasper Toonen - 6 April 2023
Introduction to Information Sociology


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