Giddens argues that fundamentalism is a reaction to globalisation. He sees society as having moved to a “late modern” phase, in which globalisation has undermined traditional norms regarding the nuclear family, gender and sexuality. People are now faced with choice, uncertainty and risk and in this environment, fundamentalism flourishes as it promises certainty with its rigid, dogmatic beliefs. Giddens argues that globalisation increases fundamentalism by providing an alternative to the risk society of late modernity. Fundamentalists may reject some aspects of modernity, they embrace others in order to spread their beliefs, for example, through the Internet, email and electronic church, suggesting that fundamentalism does not represent a total rejection of globalisation and modernity.
The fact that there is a rise of New Religious Movements gaining status and becoming well known in society could be a reason for the view that Sects and Cults are more important than the church as it losing members and attendance is declining. Due to modernity, people are becoming individualistic in terms of that they are doing things to benefit themselves rather than society. An example of this is the young of today who believe in spirituality as it aims to improve the individual. Stark and Bainbridge see sects and cults as promising other-worldly benefits in heaven and in this present life like good health, and because of this people would rather follow these new religious movements than churches because the individuals need of feeling to have a better life not and after death brings them comfort as they would be free from the oppression that they are faced with in society today. However it can be argued that just because the attendance of church members are declining does not mean that other Religious and Spiritual movements are taken their place as statistics show that there is still a lot of people that believe in God and still use the church for events such as baptism, weddings and funerals etc.
Finally, some could argue that the Church still has a very old fashioned view on some of today’s issues such as; Gay Marriage and Abortion. Therefore they are not keeping up with today’s society. The world around us is changing every
In recent times, religion has been the most dominant belief system but science has challenged religion which has led to secularisation. Replaced by religion? Many sociologists have argued that both religion and science are ideological. Ideology is a set of ideas or beliefs that support the interests of a dominant group by legitimating their social position. Religious belief systems have been challenged by scientific belief systems which emergenced during the period known as enlightenment.
Religion as a force for social change There is a constant and great debating concerning the role of religion in society. Whereas some claim that religion acts as a conservative force, suggesting that in fact inhibits change. Others would argue that religion is a major contributor to social change. As expected many sociologists have taken the middle ground and argue that religion is in fact both a conservative force and an initiator of change. The view that religion is a conservative force stems from theories from Functionalists, Marxists and Feminists.
Therefore this tells us that secularisation has developed in other societies across the world not just in Europe. However sociologist Davie suggests that in modern society, especially across Northern Europe, people ‘believe without belonging’. Davie sees religion as taking a privatised form, and although churchgoing has declined, it does not reflect the religious beliefs, as she believes we now have people believing without belonging, where people hold religious beliefs but do not attend church. Davie believes that believing without belonging is a result of change in commitment regarding religion as attendance is now a matter of choice, rather than compulsory, people are adapting religion to suit them, Davie notes that
Also post modernists believe that the nuclear family is no longer dominant and people now live in a society where they make their own decisions and every family is different in structure as peopled live with freedom and they don’t have to follow convention. Item 2B states that ‘postmodernists argue that we no longer have clear structures such as the nuclear family, but instead individuals have greater choice.’ This view however can be criticised by census data that does show that the majority of people still do claim to live in a nuclear family.
Secularisation means the decline of the importance / influence of religion in society. Due to science becoming more influential in a modern society, religion is no longer necessarily seen as such an important contributor. As marriage is a religious concept, it might also now be seen as somewhat less significant in society and many might not perceive it to be as valuable or important as it once was. Divorce could be the result of this as the decline of the value of marriage might lead people to believe it is not long term. A third reason for changes in the divorce rate is the changes in women’s expectations surrounding marriage.
It is notivable that religioin is becoming a decline, so more people are accepting divorce as they believe religioin is less important, whereas in the past religioin was highly important and the church would not accept people to remarry. It is noticable that divorce today is viewed at as more acceptable, and in society today people don't believe in divorce as a negative thing as it is a lot more common than it was in 1969. Functionalists see divorce from a negative point of view, a functionaist would, say, blame divorce on failur of social instistutions, opposing to look into the individuals who are involved in the divorce. Functionalists believe that the couple should support traditional, historical familys (smaller divorce ratess, and that communcation, working together and equability is highly
This is not so in other religions. Such religions as Hinduism for instance do not believe this. For everything you do wrong you will be punished. Christianity is slowly evolving and trying to become even more appealing to society, there are still many downfalls. Todays society is steadly envolving and the views on how the Universe works today is a total different story on how people thought it worked back then.