SYG 2000 Lecture 30: Week 15
Document Summary
Encompasses those human responses that give meaning to the ultimate and inescapable problems of existence: birth, death, illness, aging, injury, tragedy, and suffering. 3 essential features common to all religions: beliefs about the sacred (everything regarded as extraordinary) and the profane (everything not considered sacred, rituals: Rules that govern how people behave in the presence of the sacred: community of worshipers; church. Conflict theorists focus on ways in which people use religion to repress, constrain, and e(cid:454)ploit others a(cid:374)d ho(cid:449) religio(cid:374) tur(cid:374)s people"s atte(cid:374)tio(cid:374) a(cid:449)a(cid:455) fro(cid:373) so(cid:272)ial a(cid:374)d e(cid:272)o(cid:374)o(cid:373)i(cid:272) activity: serves as a false consciousness. Weber studied the role of religious beliefs in the origins and development of modern capitalism: this-worldly asceticism. A belief that people are instruments of divine will and god determines and directs their activities: predestination. The belief that god has foreordained all things, including the salvation of damnation of individual souls.
