The Relationship Between Religious Beliefs

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‘The relationship between religious beliefs, religious organisations and different social groups is complex and diverse. Different groups have different needs and priorities’ To what extent to sociological arguments and evidence support this view. As the claim suggests different social groups have different ways and reasons for religious beliefs. This may be due to different priorities; however some would suggest that they all have an equal goal and thus the same priorities. Structuralists define religion as “an organised collective of individuals with a set of beliefs, activities and practise”. This is a working definition and it is used in the majority of the following sociological research and evidence to operationalize the concept. By using this definition of religion we can thus analyse its effect on different social groups. An important element of the identity of minority ethnic groups in the UK is their religious faith. Due to immigration Britain is now characterized by religious pluralism, with a diversity of religious faiths and forms of religious practice, due to the variation of ethnic minorities. Functionalist, emphasize the role of religion in social integration, in building social solidarity, shared values and identity. Davie suggests that higher levels of religiosity help to maintain tradition, group cohesion and community solidarity. Afro-Caribbean are mainly Christians whereas in the Asian community there is more of variation of religion in the form of Sikhism, Hinduism, and Islam. The African Christianity had developed mainly in the Pentecostal and charismatic tradition this because they couldn’t accesses the traditional British forms of Christianity. In contrast Asians were being brought up in a society less racist and had more opportunities via with equal opportunity laws. Some of the values associated with Asian religions are more prominent
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