SOC101Y1 Study Guide - Final Guide: Ultimate Power, Big Business, Elite Theory
Document Summary
Maintained that religion, in addition to having a supernatural component, is largely oriented toward this world. Unlike marx and durkheim, did not really concern with whether religion is true or false. Argued that ideas, regardless of whether they are objectively true or false, represent a person" definition of reality and therefore have the potential to influence behavior. Verstehen the need to interpret action by understanding the motives of the actor researchers must place themselves in the roles of those being investigated. Need to examine culture"s influence on religion. Noted that god conceptions are strongly related to the economic, social, and political conditions in which people live. The growth of monotheism (belief in one god) is relates to goals in political unification. Religion is concerned with discovering life"s meaning whereas humanist perspectives are concerned with making life meaningful. Much of early research used one of three basic indicators to determine the religiosity of a person.
