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.
This is where churches are run like a business and they compete against each other, which creates lots of improvements to get new people in. In England, however, there is very little choice, its more like if you are religious and a Christian, you have very little choice but to go to The Church Of England. Another reason why membership and support in religious organisations has declined in the last 30 years is because it is very rare for a child to be brought up religious. Parents and Grandparents have their faith, but opt not to force religion onto their child, instead they would prefer to let the child choose their beliefs themselves. In todays modern day, it is very unlikely for a child to choose to be religious.
They believe it is changing as a result of changes in wider society, such as, greater individualism and consumerism, or a shift from modern to late modern or postmodern society. Grace Davie believes that religion is not declining, but is just taking a different, more privatised from. This is due to people no longer going to church because they feel they have to or because it is respectable to do so. Churchgoing has declined because attendance is now a matter of personal choice rather than an obligation, as it used to be. Therefore she believes people are now believing without belonging, people still hold religious beliefs but don’t go to church.
The True Religion Since the beginning of time, humans have relied on the teachings of different religions in order to explain their existence and to give them a purpose for living. People today, however, have an understanding of religion that is superficial because they rarely find complete satisfaction or definite purpose in the teachings of their faiths. Followers of these faiths think that religion can fix the problems in their lives without them having to try to fix the issues themselves. Humans seem to be lost without a solid spiritual understanding, and they resort to accumulating material items in order to find importance in their lives. Nonetheless, instead of focusing on material items, humans should interact in and with the “Natural World”.
Our diversity of religion results in people of different faiths or no faith living in one country peacefully. This is somewhat unsusual in the world and makes us a stronger country. The rest of the world looks to us with amazement that such diverse faiths can practice their religion in harmony. With this freedom we can have the luxury of great religious leaders inspiring their people and helping our country be stronger. During the American Revolution, our founding fathers were of different religions like Quakers, Methodists, Baptists and other religions.
Functionalism: Two functionalist called Talcott Parsons and George Murdock argued that every single society will have a religion due to religious institutions have certain functions which have a say to the survival of the system as whole just as the organs of the body have functions which are essential for the body’s survival. People are born into civilization and automatically become the product of all the social influences around them as they are socialised by a variety of institutions such as the family, education system, media and religion. Functionalism normally sees civilization as a system; for example a set of interconnected
Christmas can be explained as a time of gathering, a time for family to get together and share time and love. This is what the values of Christmas were; now things are not the same. It is becoming more about who gets what and how much stuff a person gets. The Christmas holiday has been contaminated with advertising commercials and sales that stores put on; it is as if they have taken away Christmas all together and just made it a huge selling point. But there are still some hopes for a conventional Christmas, according to Crittenden, “This year is no different, despite the grinchy economic pall that has fallen over retailers.
The major changes first began became of the alteration of the philosophy. People changed their way of thinking; they started to question God, and began to enjoy their life. Even the church has begun the secularism that told people can enjoy worldly lifetime but it’s centered in religion. There was another way of thinking, humanism, where people taught to reach their potential and that human beings were more important than supernatural power. However, the secularism started to change to humanism, people didn’t want to be servants and please God for their whole lives.
Many faith based agencies will help people even though they don’t have money. The disadvantage of faith based agencies is that some clients may not belong to the religion of the agency. This might make a client not want to get the help they need due to the religion
Also included in discrimination are harassment and victimisation. 1.2 Indirect Discrimination: Indirect discrimination occurs when policies and practices, which appear neutral or fair because they are applied to everyone, actually disadvantage people and particular groups within society. For example, if a job advertisement states that applicants must be able to drive then this could put a certain people at a disadvantage, such as those with a disability. So for example you may have a school display every year to celebrate Christmas because the majority of the children would be classed as ‘white’ ‘’Christian’. But if other faiths & celebrations are not represented then smaller groups could be