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Beliefs in Society Full Model Exam Paper 2

1. Outline and explain two ways in which religion can be described as

patriarchal. (10 marks)

Model answer

 Established organised religions are generally male-dominated with regard to

their hierarchies and personnel. For example, Orthodox Judaism and
Catholicism forbid women to become priests. The leader of the Roman
Catholic Church – the Pope – has always been male as have all leaders of the
Russian Orthodox Church. All the Bishops of the Church of England are male
although a female was appointed Bishop of London in 2018. Non-Western
religions are also male- dominated. The vast majority of Buddhist monks,
Hindu and Sikh priests and Muslim teachers and imans are male. This has
meant that women’s participation in some religious ceremonies is restricted
-they may are often not allowed to preach or lead prayers or read from the
sacred texts.
 Feminists argue that sacred texts largely feature the doings of male gods,
prophets etc. For example, in the Christian Bible all the most significant Old
Testament prophets are male while in the New Testament, all the apostles are
men. When women are mentioned, they represent traditional and subordinate
feminine roles, e.g. the Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ or they are symbolic of
sexual temptation such as Eve or Delilah or as ‘fallen’ women such as Mary
Magdalene.

2. Read Item A below and answer the question that follows

Item A
There are three broad reasons why people may get involved with New
Religious Movements (NRMs). Some may be disillusioned with established
traditional religions because they feel they have watered down their beliefs
or they are betraying their original principles. Some may join sects and cults
because they feel deprived in some way and the beliefs and activities of the
NRM help compensate for these feelings. Some people may join NRMs
because they are frightened of social change or they believe that the world is
about to end.
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Beliefs in Society Full Model Exam Paper 2

Applying material from Item A and your knowledge, analyse two reasons why
some people choose to join New Religious Movements. (10 marks)

Model answer

 Members of an existing religion may feel that their leaders are not adhering
faithfully enough to the religion’s belief system and break away to form a
new group. According to GK Nelson, the fundamentalist Christian
Pentecostal movement broke away from the Anglican Church because the
latter was perceived to lack spiritual creativity and joy. Many African and
African-Caribbean migrants who came to Britain often formed their own
Baptist or Pentecostal churches because they did not feel welcomed by
White-dominated mainstream churches. Sects in particular tend to be
formed by charismatic individuals who become estranged from
mainstream religions because they interpret the Bible, especially the Book
of Revelations, in a more fundamentalist or literal way. Sects sometimes
break away from other sects, e.g. the Branch Davidians broke away from
the Seventh Day Adventists when their leader, David Koresh, announced
that he was Christ.

 Weber, Glock & Stark highlight the role of deprivation in motivating

people to join NRMS. For example, Glock and Stark identify five types of
deprivation that may lead to an individual seeking solace in a NRM.
Firstly, they argue that sect membership may compensate for the
experience of poverty or inequality and what Norris & Inglehart’s call
‘existential insecurity’. The promise of being ‘saved’ or a place in an
‘afterlife’ may help people cope with their precarious lifestyle. Secondly,
sect membership may compensate for lack of job satisfaction, or lack of
power or status at work. There is some evidence that NRMs such as
Jehovah’s Witnesses may attract white-collar workers and semi-skilled
manual workers for this reason. Thirdly, another type of deprivation is
known as organismic deprivation. People who suffer from problems such
as long-term illness and disability, alcohol, drug and gambling addictions
may believe that a NRM offers some hope of healing or redemption. Some
people may be attracted to new age religions because they are suffering
from ethical or psychic forms of deprivation. For example, they may feel
that the world is moral decline and therefore get involved in a NRM
whilst looking for moral certainty. A person suffering from psychic
deprivation may believe there is more to life than consumerism or
materialism and be searching for some sort of spiritual fulfilment.
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Beliefs in Society Full Model Exam Paper 2

3. Read Item B below and answer the question that follows.

Item B

Secularisation refers to the process whereby religious practices and beliefs lose
social significance. It is thought to be a phenomenon which is exclusive to
North Western Europe and some anglicised countries such as Australia & NZ
although some postmodern critics of secularisation argue that the evidence has
been misinterpreted and that religion in Europe is merely changing in form
rather than being in terminal decline.

Bruce argues that we need to look beyond the statistics for evidence of
secularisation. For example, he argues that sociologists need to examine
religion’s disengagement from society, rationalisation and religious pluralism.

However critics of secularisation claim that the global evidence does not
support the notion that religion is in decline. Rather it suggests that it is in a
state of change even in Europe rather than in decline.

Applying material from Item B and your knowledge, analyse the view that religion
in Britain and other advanced societies today is not declining, but changing. (20
marks)

Model answer

Item B suggests that statistical evidence can be used to support the view that
religious practices and beliefs in Britain and other advanced societies are losing
social significance, and consequently in decline. For example, in 1851, the first
Census indicates that about 40% of people regularly attended church. However,
today, that figure has dropped to less than 5% and this has prompted some
sociologists, especially Wilson and Bruce, to argue that UK society is experiencing
secularisation – a decline in the social significance of both religious belief and
practice. Wilson argues that religion is no longer regarded with the same respect as
held by previous generations and consequently is less influential. However, not all
sociologists agree with this analysis, for example, Stark and Bainbridge and GK
Nelson support the argument mentioned in Item B that religious beliefs and
practices are undergoing change rather than decline.

Item B suggests that an examination of statistics relating to church attendance,

marriages in church and membership of religious institutions is irrefutable evidence
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Beliefs in Society Full Model Exam Paper 2

of secularisation. This evidence on the surface does seem to be strong. For example,
both church attendance and membership have fallen steeply – the established
churches and denominations such as the Anglicans and Methodists have lost
millions of members over the past 20 years whilst figures for baptisms, church
weddings and Sunday school attendance also indicate a general decline. Opinion
poll data too indicates a steady fall in those believing in God.

However, interpretivist sociologists note as in Item B that this approach is too

deterministic, and over-simplifies the complex and diverse nature of religious belief
and practice. The statistics must therefore be approached with caution. The statistics
are generally collected by the religions themselves and are probably unreliable
because they do not use any standardised and universal way to measure religious
belief and practice. Martin also notes that the so-called ‘golden age’ of religion in the
past is quite difficult to prove and notes that people in the medieval church probably
attended out of fear of being labelled a witch or a heretic rather than out of religious
belief.

Interpretivist sociologists have also questioned the validity of the statistics because
of what Item B calls the diverse nature of religious belief. Davie notes that the
middle-classes may attend church to be seen for status reasons and consequently this
‘belonging without believing’ distorts the meaning of religious statistics. Similarly,
she highlights the concept of ‘believing without belonging’ – she notes that in the
modern world, people may no longer feel the need to attend church to express their
religious beliefs which they interpret as a private affair anyway. Lyon points out that
the appearance of an electronic church on satellite television and the internet means
people don’t have to leave home to worship.

Davie points out that secularisation would be a more valid idea if the majority of the
population were becoming atheist but the evidence does not indicate this. Instead
the evidence suggests most British people still see themselves as Christian or at the
very worst, as agnostic, i.e. they are not sure whether God exists. Most see a role for
religion especially in times of national crisis or tragedy, or for royal weddings.

Consequently as indicated by Item B some secularisation sociologists have moved

away from relying on statistics and have developed other ideas which they claim
indicate secularisation is occurring. For example, Bruce suggests that the major social
changes of industrialisation and urbanisation have weakened the power of the
established churches to influence our lives. He argues that once upon a time, the
Anglican church had tremendous power over politics, the royal family, foreign
affairs, education, health, etc but in the 20th century, this power has dramatically
declined and the church has become disengaged from society. Bellah argues this has
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Beliefs in Society Full Model Exam Paper 2

led to a ‘secularisation of consciousness’ – people no longer put God first in their

lives and very rarely think about spiritual matters. The post-modernist thinker,
Hervieu-Leger, agrees with this analysis and suggests that society is consequently
suffering from ‘cultural amnesia’ meaning that each generation is less and less likely
to be socialised into religious values and norms by parents and schools, and
consequently secularisation is becoming more common.

A similar argument suggests religion has been replaced as an influence in people’s

lives, particularly by science and the mass media. Bruce suggests that that rational,
logical and empirical nature of scientific enquiry has resulted in a fantastic
improvement in our material and economic standard of living and consequently
people have abandoned irrational faith in God.

However, as stated in Item B, some sociologists, argue that religion is changing

rather than declining. Nelson, for example, agrees with Item B that religious activity
in Britain today is stronger and more widespread than it has been for several
decades. Nelson argues that the established churches and denominations are
experiencing secularisation because they have lost contact with God but he and
Greeley note a spiritual revival as the Pentecostal denomination and sects like the
Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses continue to pick up recruits.

Some post-modernists have suggested that some sections of the professional middle-
classes are experiencing a ‘crisis of meaning’ or what Glock and Stark call ethical and
psychic deprivations. This means they have become disillusioned with modern
values such as materialism and celebrity and feel there is something missing from
their lives. There is evidence from research by Heelas and Woodhead that they may
be turning to client cults or new age religions which stress the self and how this
might be spiritually improved. These self-religions focus on self-improvement,
positive thinking etc and their popularity certainly does not support the view that
religion is of declining significance today. Sociologists such as Stark and Bainbridge
do not agree that religion will eventually disappear as per the secularisation thesis.
Rather they argue that religious beliefs tend to come in peaks and troughs – for
example, there is little doubt that the established Christian churches and
denominations are undergoing some decline but other parts of the religious
landscape – the evangelical denominations, sects, cults and new age movements
seem to be very healthy.

Moreover, there is very little sign that secularisation is having a global effect. This
can be illustrated in a number of ways. First, evidence indicates that the USA is the
most Christian nation on the planet. Most Americans, especially those living in the
Southern states (the Bible belt) are Protestant fundamentalists who believe in the
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Beliefs in Society Full Model Exam Paper 2

literal truth of the Bible (e.g. creationism) and who reject scientific explanations such
as evolution. Between 90% and 95% of Americans believe in God, 20 million watch
tele-evangelist TV programmes and 40% attend church on a regular basis.

Norris and Inglehart have observed that fundamentalist Christianity in the form of
the Pentecostal religion is spreading rapidly across the world, particularly in poorer
regions such as the shanty towns of South America (e.g. in Brazil, people are
deserting the Catholic Church for Pentecostalism), Africa, China and South Korea.
Hinduism and Islam also continue to exert a powerful effect across Asia.