Which of the Following Is a Negative Social Function of Religion? Religion Can:

Functions of Religion

The functionalist perspective, which originates from Emile Durkheim's piece of work on organized religion, highlights the social function of organized religion.

Learning Objectives

Explain how functionalists view the purpose of religion in lodge

Cardinal Takeaways

Key Points

• The positivist tradition encourages the written report of society using dispassionate and scientific methods.
• Emile Durkheim argued that religion provides social cohesion and social control to maintain society in social solidarity.
• Commonage consciousness, which is the fusion of all of our private consciousnesses, creates a reality of its own.
• Critics of the functionalist arroyo point out that religion tin can be dysfunctional. For case, faith may incite violence by a fundamentalist religious group.

Cardinal Terms

• social control: any control, either formal or informal, that is exerted past a group, especially by one's peers
• social cohesion: The bonds or "glue" that maintain stability in society.

Functions of Religion

The structural-functional approach to religion has its roots in Emile Durkheim's work on faith. Durkheim argued that religion is, in a sense, the celebration and even (cocky-) worship of human society. Given this approach, Durkheim proposed that organized religion has 3 major functions in society: it provides social cohesion to help maintain social solidarity through shared rituals and beliefs, social control to enforce religious-based morals and norms to help maintain conformity and command in lodge, and it offers meaning and purpose to reply any existential questions. Further, Durkheim placed himself in the positivist tradition, meaning that he thought of his written report of club as dispassionate and scientific. He was securely interested in the problem of what held complex modern societies together. Religion, he argued, was an expression of social cohesion.

Organized religion, for Durkheim, is not imaginary, although he does deprive it of what many believers find essential. Faith is very real; it is an expression of society itself, and indeed, there is no society that does non have religion. Nosotros perceive equally individuals a force greater than ourselves and requite that perception a supernatural face. We so limited ourselves religiously in groups, which for Durkheim makes the symbolic ability greater. Organized religion is an expression of our collective consciousness, which is the fusion of all of our private consciousness, which then creates a reality of its ain.

It follows, then, that less complex societies, such as the Australian Aborigines, take less complex religious systems, involving totems associated with particular clans. The more complex a item club is, the more complex the religious arrangement. As societies come in contact with other societies, there is a tendency for religious systems to emphasize universalism to a greater and greater extent. Even so, as the division of labor makes the private seem more important, religious systems increasingly focus on individual salvation and censor.

The primary criticism of the structural-functional approach to religion is that it overlooks organized religion'southward dysfunctions. For instance, faith tin can be used to justify terrorism and violence. Organized religion has often been the justification of, and motivation for, war. In one sense, this still fits the structural-functional arroyo every bit it provides social cohesion among the members of i party in a conflict. For instance, the social cohesion among the members of a terrorist grouping is high, simply in a broader sense, religion is obviously resulting in conflict without questioning its deportment against other members of gild.

Catholic Church Gathering for Mass: Congregation Gathering Service for the Virgin Mary

Religion and Social Support

According to many social scientific discipline studies, psychological well-beingness is positively correlated with religious engagement.

Learning Objectives

Discuss the relationship between religion and social and individual well-being

Key Takeaways

Primal Points

• Many studies suggest that religious people are happier and less stressed than their non-religious counterparts.
• The Legatum Prosperity Alphabetize reflects the inquiry that there is a positive link betwixt religious appointment and well-being.
• Religiosity has a salutary relationship with psychological aligning, because it is related to less psychological distress, more than life satisfaction, and better self-actualization.

Key Terms

• well-being: a state of health, happiness and/or prosperity
• self-actualization: Self-actualization is a term that has been used in various psychology theories, often in slightly different ways. The term was originally introduced by the organismic theorist Kurt Goldstein for the motive to realize one'due south total potential. Even so, the concept was brought about fully to prominence in Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, in which "self-appearing" was the concluding level of psychological development that can be accomplished when all basic and mental needs are fulfilled. In such a example, the "actualization" of full personal potential takes place.
• religiosity: An alphabetize of how strongly religious a person is

Faith and Health

In that location is now extensive enquiry suggesting that religious people are happier and less stressed than their non-religious counterparts. Social scientists have identified a number of mechanisms that might explain why religion might make an individual happier, none of which rest on the explanation of divine intervention or supernatural phenomenon. Sure features of religious practice may facilitate greater well-being for members. These include the following:

• basic social contact
• a large, non-family network of social support
• the positive mental health 1 derived from optimism and volunteering,
• coping strategies to enhance 1'southward ability to deal with stress
• a worldview that prevents existential questions from arising

Scientific Studies of Organized religion and Health

The Legatum Prosperity Index reflects the inquiry that suggests that there is a positive link between religious engagement and well-being. People who study that God is very important in their lives are on average more than satisfied with their lives, after accounting for their income, historic period and other individual characteristics that might bias results. A 1993 report by Kosmin & Lachman indicated that people without a religious affiliation appeared to exist at greater risk for depressive symptoms than individuals affiliated with a organized religion. Surveys by Gallup, the National Opinion Inquiry Center and the Pew System conclude that spiritually committed people are twice as likely to written report existence "very happy" than the least religiously committed people. An analysis of over 200 studies contends that high religiousness predicts a lower run a risk of low, a lower risk of drug abuse, fewer suicide attempts. Those same studies acquaintance religious involvement with reports of higher satisfaction with sexual activity life and a sense of well-beingness. A review of 498 peer-review academic studies revealed that a large bulk of them showed a positive correlation between religious commitment and college levels of perceived well-being of cocky-esteem. These same studies revealed a positive correlation between religious involvement and lower levels of hypertension, low, and clinical delinquency. A meta-analysis of 34 recent studies published between 1990 and 2001 found that religiosity has a salutary human relationship with psychological aligning. Religious involvement was related to less psychological distress, more life satisfaction, and improve cocky-actualization. Finally, as signaled in a recent review of 850 research papers, the majority of well-conducted studies suggest that higher levels of religious involvement are positively associated with indicators of psychological well-existence (life satisfaction, happiness, positive affect, and higher morale). In these studies, religious involvement was associated with less depression, fewer suicidal thoughts, and less drug booze abuse.

Tharlam Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism: An apparently happy man wears the v Dhyani Buddhas Crown and holds a Flower and Dorje (vajra).

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-sociology/chapter/the-functionalist-perspective-on-religion/

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