Ideology, Science & Religion (AQA A Level Sociology): Flashcards

Animism is belief in spirits, forces or ghosts that inhabit people, animals, objects or places and influence the world.

Theism differs from deism, which proposes a creator who does not intervene in the world.

New Age movements focus on self-development, personal meaning and wellbeing, rather than devotion to a god or supernatural authority.

True.

All three see religion as preserving the status quo: through social solidarity for functionalists, ideology for Marxists and patriarchal power for feminists.

Marx argued that by promising rewards in the afterlife, religion diverts attention from oppression.

Christianity has acted as a conservative force on the law because it has historically resisted the liberalisation of laws around contraception, abortion and marriage.

A closed belief system claims a monopoly on the truth and rejects competing explanations from science, philosophy or other religions.

For Polanyi (1958), blaming an unanswered prayer on weak faith is a subsidiary explanation.

Circularity is when beliefs justify themselves; e.g. the holy text is true because it comes from God.

Evans-Pritchard studied the Azande's belief in witchcraft as an explanation of misfortune, a belief system that could not be challenged.

Internal secularisation is when religions dilute or modify their core beliefs to keep their connection to wider society (Herberg, 1960).

False.

Reform Judaism has adapted traditional practices to modern life, e.g. mixed seating and women rabbis, making it a more open belief system.

One criticism of religions becoming open belief systems is that religions that weaken their core beliefs risk losing their distinctiveness, which can lead to declining commitment.

Popper saw science as an open belief system because its ideas are always open to testing, criticism and falsification.

In Merton's CUDOS norms, communism means that scientific knowledge must be shared, otherwise progress cannot happen.

Merton's norm of organised scepticism means that all scientific knowledge is open to questioning.

Kuhn argued that when a paradigm dominates science, scientists work within it and those who challenge it are dismissed.

False.

Marxists argue that scientific knowledge is shaped to serve capitalist interests, e.g. drugs priced so only wealthy nations can afford them.

Mannheim distinguished ideological thought, which supports the existing order, from utopian thought, which justifies social change.

The free-floating intelligentsia is Mannheim's idea of intellectuals not tied to any class, who could combine ideologies into a more balanced worldview.

Postmodernists see science and religion as competing stories, none of which has a monopoly on truth.

Anderson meant that people never know most of their fellow citizens but still feel a bond through shared symbols and rituals.

False.

Gellner argued that nations were created by nationalism, which emerged alongside modernisation and industrialisation.

Marxists see nationalism as false consciousness because it divides workers by nationality, distracting them from their shared class interests.

For Durkheim, religion is defined by the distinction between the sacred and the profane.

False.

Durkheim argued that religion always involves collective rituals or practices in relation to the sacred.

Durkheim argued that when people worship sacred symbols, they are really worshipping society itself.

Durkheim studied totemism among the Arunta, an Australian Aboriginal clan society.

The collective conscience is the shared norms and values that hold society together, which Durkheim said sacred symbols represent.

Durkheim argued that worshipping the totem reinforces the clan's solidarity and sense of belonging.

Durkheim said religion provides the first categories of thought, such as time, space and cause and effect, that make reasoning and science possible.

Malinowski argued that religion provides comfort and rites of passage, such as funerals, that help people cope and return to normality.

The Trobriand Islanders performed rituals to reduce anxiety and gain confidence and control before fishing in dangerous seas.

True.

Protestantism made values such as individualism and meritocracy seem God-given, and so universal and unquestionable.

Parsons argued that religion provides meaning by answering ultimate questions, such as why suffering exists and what happens after death.

Civil religion is a belief system that unifies a pluralistic society through shared rituals, symbols and beliefs, e.g. the pledge of allegiance in the USA (Bellah, 1970).

One strength of the functionalist view of religion is that it shows religion works at both the societal and psychological levels, explaining why religion persists.

False.

Where there is religious pluralism, it is hard to see how religion unites people, e.g. conflict in Northern Ireland.

The functionalist view of religion might be outdated because secularisation has weakened religion, and non-religious value systems, such as human rights, may now provide shared values and cohesion.

The functionalist view of religion is criticised as deterministic because it assumes that individuals passively absorb religious values, ignoring that people can reject or reinterpret religious teachings.

Marxists see religion as an ideology because it distorts reality in ways that benefit the ruling class.

Religion promotes false consciousness by teaching that inequality is God-given and that the poor will be rewarded in the afterlife.

Lenin called religion 'spiritual gin': an intoxicant handed to the masses to confuse and pacify them.

Althusser (1971) saw religion as an ideological state apparatus that legitimates class inequality.

Marx meant that religion acts like a drug, dulling the pain of exploitation without tackling its root cause.

False.

Marx saw capitalism as the cause of alienation; religion only offers an escape that masks the underlying exploitation.

Hinduism teaches that caste results from karma from a previous life, so lower castes should accept inequality for reward in the next life.

Engels argued that Christianity and socialism both appeal to the poor by offering a better life.

False.

Christianity offers salvation in the afterlife, while socialism promises change in the here and now.

Marxists argued that religion would no longer be needed, because inequality would no longer exist.

Leach shows that religion is tied to elites; e.g. the monarch is head of the Church of England, and most bishops are privately educated.

Norris and Inglehart (2004) argue that people facing existential insecurity are more likely to be religious.

Liberation Theology in Latin America is an example of religion acting as a source of resistance and change.

The Marxist view of religion is criticised as too deterministic because it assumes religion always manipulates workers into obedience, but people can reinterpret or resist religious teachings.

True.

As religion's influence declines, alternative belief systems, such as nationalism, may legitimate inequality instead.

Feminists call them 'malestream' because both ignore how religion justifies male power and women's subordination.

Sacred texts reinforce patriarchy because they are written and interpreted by men and often portray women as sinful or weak, e.g. Eve in Genesis.

Daly argued that monotheistic religions such as Christianity replaced goddess traditions with male-dominated structures.

Beauvoir (1953) argued that religion encourages women to accept oppression by promising them rewards in the afterlife.

Holm argues that women are often excluded from religious authority and treated as polluting, reinforcing their lower status.

The stained glass ceiling is the barrier that excludes women from positions of power within mainstream religious institutions.

Some religions marginalise women in worship by excluding them from sacred spaces or segregating them, e.g. barring menstruating women from Hindu temples.

False.

El Saadawi argued that men in positions of cultural power reshaped religious practices to serve male interests.

Religious laws and customs often restrict women's rights in divorce, marriage, dress codes and reproductive control.

Woodhead argued that religion can give women opportunities for status, self-expression and a sense of identity.

New Age movements may appeal to women because they celebrate traditionally 'feminine' qualities, such as intuition, healing and nurturing.

Brusco found that Pentecostal women used religion to increase their influence at home, challenging male machismo.

In Hinduism, women often lead domestic puja, giving them moral authority within families.

Becoming a Catholic nun can offer women independence from traditional domestic roles and a life of autonomy and service.

True.

Denominations such as the Quakers and Unitarians promote gender equality; Unitarians have a long tradition of female ministers.