Assess the View That Religion Is a Source of Instability and Conflict

Throughout my selected text, Johnson focuses on the church along with the subsequent androcentric image of God, and how it impacts woman around the world. She explains that throughout history, with the help of the church’s patriarchal nature and society’s values as a whole, woman have been seen “as a ‘defective male’…that must live in obedience to her [male counterpart,]…[ and who are often also referred to as the] ‘second sex’” (Johnson 92). This

Feminists see religion as an instrument of patriarchy which means that society is based around male domination; they believe that this is a set of beliefs and practices responsible for women’s subordination. However functionalists believe otherwise and argue that its function is not to oppress women but to keep society stable whilst Marxists believe that religion oppresses the working class not females.

Religion in any time and has several profound influences on its society affecting the moral codes, gender relationships, and

The main sociological theories all believe religion acts as a conservative force in society in a sense that religion helps keep things the way they are and keep everything stable. However some of these theories may be against the idea that religion acts conservative force for their own reasons. For example Feminism believes that religion acts as a conservative force nevertheless they are against it as they believe it oppresses women by keeping women’s status the same.

The loss of the central place of religion as a structuring element of social life seemed to be a constant in the Western world. However, in the last decades we have attended a return of the religious or rather to a recomposition from the religious as an essential member of social and political phenomena.

As the Quran does not show indifference between men and women, the women are now expanding their religious and individualized empowerment (Al-Mannai, 2010). They have also been challenged by the ability for women to obtain access to Muslim training facilities as well as acquiring credibility within the conservative, traditionally male establishments (Hossain, 2015). Through challenging the norm, women have become active in religious activities such as educational activities, services and organizations (Hammer, 2008). Muslim women have pushed through the challenges and some now hold high religious positions within the Muslim community that have allowed women to play a role in the interpretation and teaching of the Quran. Through interpretation of the Quran, women have also established the right to gender equality within the Muslim community and affirmed their role within the mosque (Hoodfar & Sadr, 2010). Women determined themselves to be just as capable of leading a prayer within the Mosque as their male counterparts are. Through this they were hoping to ender gender equality within their religion as American Women did when they gained their right to vote and South African women did during the oppression they suffered throughout the apartheid (Russo,

Marx warned that religion was like a narcotic: It dulled people’s pain so they did not realize how serious the situation was. He claimed that it kept that classes in order as well. Marx believed that religion had been institutionalize to undermine the masses impulse to resist exploitation and change the social order.

Religion was created to inspire and give people hope for a better life by worshiping a supernatural deity. However, in today’s society the world has manipulated and shaped the concept of religion into something other than a type of betterment of the human race. Humans are born into this world untouched, it is not until they become a certain age when they are lead into the manipulative cycle of religion. Religion has morphed from hope and explanations to an excuse for violence, an excuse for exploitation, and an excuse to ignore factual, scientific, evidence.

Marx see's religious beliefs as a form of ideology that serves to prevent any revolutionary consciousness and increases levels of false consciousness

When people are asked how important religion is to them, the answer comes in a variety of different ways. Many would say that religion is vital factor to living a prosperous life. Others may say that religion is the one thing that divided the human race entirely. Religion can be seen as a powerful tool for many people, but it can also be seen as a weapon. Centuries ago, Europeans invaded Africa and used their own religions and beliefs as a weapon to control the African natives. When learned about this fact, one question could become apparent; how can religion be used as a weapon of mass control? To answer this question, we must first understand how religion is taught, and how it can powerful it really is.

Religion is considered to be a contentious concept in the contemporary world. Similar to politics, religion is controversial is the fact that the decisions made are important, yet the evidence that exists is contradictory. There is often controversy developed between people of different religious beliefs for this reason. Throughout all of time, humans have dealt with many social conflicts that relate to the disagreement on religious views. We as individuals in a society question why religion is considered to be a common cause of many social conflicts around the world. What causes religion to lead to controversy between different social groups? I am interested in researching more on this topic because I believe

Marx view religion as an addiction. His referrers to religion to “the opium of the people” (Royce2015:29). Religion gives solace to the worker (proletarians), but at the same time it creates alienation “The more man puts into God, the less he retains in himself” (Dillion 2014:68). Proletarians looked to religion because of their disenchanted constrain lives they were leading. Marx sees religion as a social function and institution that holds a status quo. Marx’s was a Lutheran as a child, but he was

Much of the non-Islamic Western world views the disposition of Islam towards women in a very negative light. The role and status of women in both Islamic religion and culture, however, are heavily skewed by the media and Western perception. The constant barrage of Muslim people in connection with terrorism and misogyny on Western news outlets has led to a very one sided and distorted understanding of Islam, being that the extremists often featured in those stories actually make up a very small percentage of Muslims. In actuality, ancient Islamic civilizations where some of the first to give women rights and respect almost equal to that of men. The Qur’an itself preaches the equality and admiration of women in the eyes of Allah.

Modern human beings need a reference point for all the problems that we are facing in the world today. It is easy to see the impact that religion can have on social behavior. Examples of this would be the roles of the religious movements in the struggle for civil rights in the United States, or the way it was involved in the former apartheid system in South Africa. Many times religion lies at the central point of conflict, whether it is Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, or Islam. It can also lead to increasing hostility between religious groups within society.

A religion can be seen as a unified system of beliefs and practices which are relative to sacred things and beliefs (Giddens 1972, p.224). It can shape ones thoughts and feelings and gives people a sense of hope and something to believe in. All three main sociologist writers Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim offer different perspectives on religion and how important it is to society. Some of the theorists chose to have a positive view whilst others argue the unimportance of religion. This essay attempts to discover which theorist has the most accurate perspective of religion in modern times. This is done by firstly explaining the basic ideas regarding to religion put forward by Marx, Weber and Durkheim. Then both Marx's and