The secularisation debate

Question 1

What is secularisation

Answer 1

Secularisation refers to the ways in which religious influence has declined in contemporary societies.

Question 2

Evidence for secularisation

Answer 2

1) Decline in religious belief
2) Loss of practical functions
3) Decline in religious engagement
4) Decline in religious affiliation
5) Rationalisation

Question 3

1)Decline in religious beliefs

Answer 3

There has been a significant decline in the amount of people who actually believe in religion.
According to Wilson (1982) - there has been an extent to which people’s understanding of the social world has moved. Society has moved away from magic (spells/charms) or religious prayer to an understanding based on secular scientific explanation

-This means that phenomenons or ideas that were once explained by religion are now being explained by science e.g the religious explanation of the creation of the universe has now been explained using the Big Bang Theory.

-People no longer believe in religion as science offers a logical explanation to various phenomenons

Question 4

2) Loss of practical functions

Question 5

3) Rationalisation

Answer 5

-Weber argued that in modern societies people would act less in terms of emotion and tradition and more in terms of rational pursuit of goals