The Effect of Religion on Social Life - Essay Example

Sociology is the acquisition of knowledge through the broadly distributed network of human relationship with respect to its environment. Thus every aspect of human life is matter of curiosity for a sociologist and the role of religion in the life of a man is one of the most important facet that has long lasting effect not only on an individual’s life but its influence can be observed as a kaleidoscope of mixed feelings with wide ranging reactions by all people, in some way or the other. The religion, therefore, needs to be examined in various perspectives so that one could gauge its overwhelming response among the masses that practice it in its different formats and expressions. Hence, one often finds that in contemporary society, we depend less on experts to guide our decision making and more on religious guidelines and socio-cultural paradigms. Religion can be broadly defined in terms the guidelines for the people for leading a mutually complementary life within a well defined social setup for peaceful co-existence. The origin of different religions can be attributed to the diversity of people in different geographical locations, endowed with different set of guidelines. The acknowledgement of God, as The Creator, though forms the unifying factor but differences in ideologies and perception towards things, lead to difference of opinions. The knowledge gained through religious ideologies and guidelines is complemented and supplemented by our inherent tendency to explore and widen its area of influence through all available means. In fact, the most interesting aspect of knowledge is that whether we want or not, we have the choices to imbibe, cultivate, facilitate, use, misuse and so on. The options are endless but in the last 50 years, though the access to knowledge has increased but our ability to make choices and decisions has considerably decreased. Knowledge can be defined as the ideas, thoughts, opinion, observation, application of all these in our everyday life and categorizing them in some systematic format so that can be further used, modified or changed as per our need. The diversity in the area of knowledge is the most important aspect of it. The inherent tendency of the mankind to experiment and disseminate information has been the foundation for the ever expanding areas of knowledge and its consequences are easily discernible in the development of the societies and transformation of the world in terms of socio-economic and political development as well as that of fast paced technology whose presence can be felt in all spheres of our existence. Interestingly, when the sphere of knowledge increased, the peer population stepped in to monitor the usage of knowledge in some predefined and predetermined manner so as to exert some sort of control over the society thus effectively putting a social construction on the knowledge or part of knowledge. The emergence of societies, cultures, races, religion etc. are few of the examples of social construction that have significant influence on the societies. Institutionalization of knowledge in well defined categories like theology, medicine, science and technology, history, geography etc. became important arms of the knowledge base in the development process of the changing times. Propagation of knowledge and information through various tangible and non tangible means became one of the most powerful tools to influence paradigms of socio-political relationship across the globe. The implicit and explicit use of knowledge thus, became strong motivators for change and development. The changing societal norms and social identity frameworks are largely based on religious guidelines that signify core values and beliefs and provide people with unique and an inherent sense of responses towards conflicts and paradoxical situations. Eminent social scientist and philosopher, Durkheim had based his observations on the predetermined code of conduct that had guided the principles of division of labor. He has stated that ‘all religions are instructive’ (Durkheim, 1912, p22). He believed that society is more important than individual and that human civilization reflected exactly that. Since human were free to choose, they chose what they believed to be right for themselves and those beliefs were based on certain criteria of ‘good or bad’, signifying the existence of religion. Hence according to Durkheim, the religious compulsions might have been the major causes for the historical changes within the humanoid civilization. Karl Marx thought that the culture of the human significantly impacts the coming generation of the human. He emphasized that the visible culture is primarily focused on labor division and the belief that they are products of consciousness. He further claimed that ‘the abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness’ (Marx, 1844, p44) and therefore, their existences is a manifestation of the material activities that each needs to strive in his or her area of expertise. While the concept of God is absent from their life, they intrinsically conform to predetermined social order and believe one can mold oneself into any desired image that one can conceive for oneself. When a man makes a choice, he needs to be responsible because he is also representative of mankind and indirectly responsible for all human-beings. Contrary to Marx, Weber believed that the division of labor promoted segregation of labor force into hierarchical order that was based on varying degree of material benefits. The division of labor also contributed to the development of social hierarchy that was distinct and encouraged different set of code of conduct. The capitalistic attitude of human-beings was visible in their living standard that was increasing becoming more flamboyant and less sensitive towards the others who seemed to be less privileged. Capitalistic values seemed to be the major cause of historical changes in the new planet. While he never denied the existence of God and believed that people follow the doctrines of their peer which is primarily based on the teachings of the Catholicism. Just as the Church seems to be tolerant of material gains through atonement, the society with its ‘lavish expenditure, that might be termed as having capitalistic outlook of ‘acquisitions’(Weber, 1905). According to Hogg and Vaughan (2002), social identity is the conceptualization of self by an individual depending on the values and beliefs of the group to which he belongs. Turner et al., affirm that a person’s identity of ‘self’ may encompass multiple identities which have different ‘levels of self’ when his feelings, thoughts and actions are influenced by different social contexts vis-à-vis personal, family or national (Turner et al., 1987). According to Burke and others, ‘The core of an identity is, the categorization of the self as an occupant of a role, and the incorporation into the self, of the meanings and expectations associated with that role and its performance… expectations and meanings, form a set of standards, that guides their behavior’ (Burke 1991; Burke and Tully 1977; Thoits 1986). Social identities greatly facilitate societal norms and predefined behavioral pattern. But the social identities in the contemporary times have provoked wide ranging percolating effects that are increasing becoming complex and difficult to manage especially in the era which is rapidly transforming into pluralistic society. The group identities with religious overtones are especially creating huge dilemma for countries that pride themselves with high standard of socio economic and political ideologies. There is urgent need to evolve strategies and policies that may introduce new approach to tackling the emerging challenges of fanatic religion based identified groups who are more inclined towards violence against the mankind in the name of religious justice. Velasquez’s philosophy is highly pertinent and like Marx, asserted that human life is meaningful ‘to the extent that they contribute to the advance of freedom or classless society’ (Valezquez). He also agrees with Sartre that life is about making choices. When a man chooses to act in certain manner, he does so because he thinks that is the right way to act and that is how he would expect others to act. Similarly when he makes a choice, he opts for something that he accepts is important and which has considerable value for him. One can never deliberately choose evil so it can be correctly interpreted that we always make effort to choose things and actions that are good. When man defines himself, he is actually defining values which he believes to be good and representative of universal values that are accepted by every human as being good. One can therefore conclude that what drives the man to strive for the unattainable is the intrinsic faith in the religion that promotes an unconscious effort to follow a certain ideology, exerting an intangible bond or emotion for the cause which goes deep and visibly affects religion and fellow human being. This emotional linkage with the religion may sometimes interfere with the rationale of human relationship, especially so far as racism and gender inequality is concerned. The different religious faiths, though having huge followings, often differ vastly in interpretation of the same in their daily life. The religious beliefs and economic stratification of the social structure are, to a great extent, responsible for correlating the fragmentation of the society in terms of race and gender inequalities and hugely influence the decision making processes. (1519) Reference Burke, Peter J. and Judy Tully. (1977). “The Measurement of Role/Identity.” Social Forces 55:881-97. Burke, Peter J. 1991. “Identity Processes and Social Stress.” American Sociological Review 56:836-49. Durkheim, Emile. (1912). The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. New York. The free Press. Hogg, M.A. & Vaughan, G.M. (2002). Social Psychology (3rd ed.) London: Prentice Hall. Marx, K. (1844). Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right in Marx, K. and Engels, F. On Religion, Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House in Goldblatt, D. (ed.) Knowledge and the Social Sciences: Theory, Method and Practice, London, Routledge/The Open University. Thoits, Peggy A. (1986). “Multiple Identities: Examining Gender and Marital Status Differences in Distress.” American Sociological Review 51:259-72. Turner, John C., Michael A. Hogg, Penelope J. Oakes, Stephen D. Reicher, and Margaret S. Wetherell. (1987). Rediscovering the Social Group: A Self-Categorization Theory. New York: Basil Blackwell. Velasquez, Manual. (2005). Philosophy. Thomson Higher Education. Weber, Max. (1905). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Read More