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PEOPLE study religion for two reasons:
1. Religion is very important to many people and their religious practices may play a significant role in their lives
- Spectrum of significance of beliefs/ practices in their lives
-Canadian Stats (Christian- 67%, roman catholic 38%)
- Global (Christianity- 33%, islam-20%)
2. Society Influences religion and religion influences society
- religious values influence behaviours
- religious meanings influence interpretation of experiences
Society <--> religion - influences foundational to classical sociology (eg. George Bush)
Does God exist? Sociologically, does it matter?
- Sociologists NOT interested in proving whether god exists or NOT
- in some ways NO, but also yes- because sociologists are studying people who either DO or don't believe
- the fact that other people believe or not is important, not the question of if something is there or not
Humans search for origins/ meanings..
through
- Religion
-Science
(Hadron collider- anti-matter project, Higgs boson)
"God particle"- origins of the universe from a scientific perspective
Diff ways to Study religion
1. Religious Social Scientists
- beliefs influence their work
-may use their faith to determine research topics
Eg. Fr. Andrew Greely-- priest and sociologist quite critical on own religion
- may use data collection and interpretations that support their faith or raise questions within it
2. Liberal Social Scientists
- careful in their discussions of different faiths
- variety of approaches
3. Secular Social Scientists
- no religious beliefs
-God- is a social construction- GOD/DIETIES are socially but not objectively real
- no religion is superior to others- all can be criticized in different ways
Secular Nation
- does not wed religion and politics
-no one religion dominates over others
- protects religions from being oppressed
SECULAR DOES NOT equal ATHEIEST
Defining Religion
- Definitions are strategies rather than objective truths
-no single definitions
-strategies for thinking about religion
1. Substantive Definitions
-What religion IS (intuitive approach, common sense approach)
- Reference to supernatural realm
- reference to power - is central
- supernatural agent has a great deal of power
- may use power in benevolent or punitive matter
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