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Religion And Sociological Analysis

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Religion has been a major component of sociological thought from the classical theorists to post-modern sociologists. How society functions and is held together and what connections are fostered by religion has been studied using a scientific outlook on how to accurately interpret and gain an understanding how religion fits in with the social world. The sociology of religion largely differs from theology in assuming indifference to the supernatural, theorists tend to accept socio-cultural reification of religious practice (Wikipedia1 2017). I will be trying to make a connection between Darwin’s use of natural sciences to influence a new way to interpreted social dynamics and how these influences have changed the way sociologist in a postmodern …show more content…

In a modern society the forced division of labor and ideology shaped not only production and social standings but a materialistic conception of ideology using the concept of Ideological State Apparatus in conjunction with Ideological State institutions, such as religious organizations cover ideological practice, which has established individuals as subjects (Boundless 2016). Emile Durkheim stated that religion helps form social solidarity in complex societies due to the dependence on others to complete their social duties (Wikipedia1 2017). Durkheim introduced the terms "mechanical" and "organic solidarity" as part of his theory of the development of societies. Durkheim differentiated mechanical solidarity, which he argued is characteristic of traditional societies and based on shared and dominant social values and undifferentiated social structures, from organic solidarity, which he deemed as characteristic of Modem societies, which is based on the division, and specialization, of labor and the differentiation of social structures and functions. The …show more content…

Thoreau examined how we were emotionally related, how we fit into the natural world and, to some degree, how humanity could continue to live in the natural world, a nonconformist he also promoted a simpler way to look at the natural social world that was elaborated on in his work “Walden” (Viens 2012). Alcott was a transcendentalist, abolitionist and a radical reformist of American society, as well as a supporter of women’s rights (Wikipedia2 2017). Because Alcott dismissed and criticized traditional religious and economic institutions one can assume that he witnessed his own social alienation which only strengthened his views on social reform and the abolition of slavery. Charles Loring Brace published “The Races of the Old World,” a work of ethnography meant to demonstrate, among other things, that blacks were not “radically different from the other families of man or even mentally inferior to them” (PRI 2017). But, Fuller shows, Brace could not envision living in a biracial society; Blacks, he claimed, were permanently adapted to warm climates and therefore should remain in the South after slavery ended (Fonner 2017). As we see the times changing in America, The Civil War and issues on

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