Beliefs in Society Full Model Exam Paper 4

1. Outline and explain two reasons why young people are more likely to
identify as secular rather than as religious in the UK today. . (10 marks)

Model response

 Hervieu-Leger suggests that secularisation among the young is partly due to

‘cultural amnesia’ or ‘loss of collective memory’. For centuries, children used
to be taught religion in the extended family, at school and at Sunday school.
Religion was handed down generation by generation. She argues that few
parents today teach their children about religion whilst schools have largely
abandoned religious worship. She also argues that parents are now more
willing to allow their children to choose whether or not they want to believe
in God or go to church. As a result, religions have lost their traditional power
to impose religious beliefs on people from above. Young people are less likely
to inherit a fixed religious identity and consequently they are more likely to
reject or be indifferent towards traditional religion.

 Brierley found that religion does not have much attraction for children. His
survey found that most of his sample thought church was boring, repetitive,
uncool and old-fashioned as well as being full of old people who were out of
touch with the styles and attitudes of young people. In contrast, older people
belong to a generation in which going to church is normal. Similarly, Voas
and Crockett identify a generational effect. They claim that each generation is
half as religious as their parents because religion has to compete with other
beliefs and activities in and out of the home that are more attractive to the
young especially on so-called sacred days like Sundays.
Beliefs in Society Full Model Exam Paper 4

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

Item A

Malinowski see religious ceremonies functioning to appease or reduce the potential

stress, anxiety, conflict and chaos caused by life-crises such as birth, puberty and
sudden death. Parsons agrees that religion socialises people into conformity by
giving them guidelines which shape their behaviour.

Applying material from Item A and your knowledge, analyse two ways in
which religious ceremonies may appease or reduce potential stress and conflict.
(10 marks)

Model answer

3. Malinowski carried out a study of the Trobriand Islanders who lived in the
South Pacific. He observed that fishing was their livelihood. They fished in
two ways, either in the lagoon which was reasonably safe or they would go
out into the ocean in their canoes which was exceptionally dangerous.
Malinowski observed that second type of fishing was always preceded by a
religious ceremony in which the fishermen put their safety into the hands of
their gods. If an individual islander or the whole fleet was lost at sea, this was
seen as the will of the gods. The ceremony, therefore minimised the grief felt
by relatives which had the potential to destabilise the Trobriand community
because the tribe accepted it had been the will of the Gods that the men had
been lost.
4. Malinowski believed that rite of passage ceremonies such as funerals
functioned to reduce the social disruption caused by the death of a loved one.
The funeral ceremony provides some order in the chaos of early grief. It helps
confirm the reality of death. It helps family members validate the legacy of
deceased family members. It brings together extended kin and the local
community to celebrate the life of a loved one and especially their
contribution to both family and community. Most families arrange a religious
funeral, regardless of whether the deceased was religious or not, or whether
they regularly attended church. Religion provides comfort in times of need.
Family members may be consoled and supported by religion’s reassurance
that the deceased has moved onto a better place and that their suffering is
over. Finally, the funeral marks the end of the official phase of mourning.
Cultural norms dictate that life should return to its usual pre-death routine,
and that those in mourning should now return to work and get on with
living.
Beliefs in Society Full Model Exam Paper 4

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

Item B

Marx argued that religion is the ‘opiate of the masses’. He claimed

religion was a form of ideological drug which served to cushion the
effects of inequalities in wealth, income & power, and the exploitation
and oppression of the working-class by the bourgeois by offering
divine explanations for it and/or by offering spiritual compensation for
it. Marx saw religion as part of the superstructure of capitalist society
in that it functioned to reproduce and justify the class inequalities that
originate in the economic infrastructure. It also played a key role in
distracting the attention of the poor and powerless away from
inequality so that the rich and powerful were not threatened by fear of
revolution or radical social change.

However, functionalists argue that Marx ignores the positive benefits of

religion to society such as the way it creates social stability and shared
values which are necessary for social order. In this sense, religion
benefits everyone – not just a ruling class.

Applying material from Item B and your knowledge, analyse the view that
religion is the ‘opiate of the masses’. (20 marks)

Model answer

Marxist sociologists as stated in Item B argue that religious organisations are part of
the superstructure of capitalist society and consequently its ideological role is to
reproduce, support and justify the class inequalities in wealth which are part of the
capitalist infrastructure. Karl Marx therefore argued that religion functions to benefit
powerful social groups at the expense of the working-class and poor. However,
Item B also observes that functionalist sociologists disagree with this analysis.
Durkheim and Parsons suggest that the role and functions of religion are beneficial
for society as a whole because religion promotes social order and social integration.

Marx believed that religion is the ‘opiate of the masses’. Opium was a powerful drug
in Marx’s day which resulted in a state of semi-consciousness for its users so that
they were often unaware of what was going on around them. In this sense, as stated
Beliefs in Society Full Model Exam Paper 4

in Item B Marx argued that religion is ideological – it transmits a set of ruling class
ideas aimed at convincing the poor that the existing socio-economic hierarchy is
natural and deserved because God designed it that way. This can be illustrated in
four ways. Firstly, some religions explain the existence of poverty or inequality in
supernatural terms. For example, the theology of some denomination sects states
that poverty is justified because the poor are sinners or that they have been
especially chosen by God and that their poverty and suffering is a test of their faith
to make sure they are ‘worthy’ of divine rewards such as entry to heaven. Secondly,
religion often makes suffering on earth bearable for the poor by promising them a
reward in an after-life. Such promises of salvation may take the form of heaven or
redemption through a return to a 'promised land'. These religious ideas promote the
idea that people should wait patiently for divine intervention or a second coming
rather than actively seeking to change their existing situation. Thirdly, some
religions present suffering as a virtue especially if it experienced without complaint.
The Bible is often quoted selectively by such religions, e.g. ‘it is easier for a camel to
pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of
Heaven’. Fourthly, religion informs the poor that the way society is organised in
terms of power and wealth being concentrated in the hands of the powerful is God-
given and therefore unchangeable. In the past, we can see this was done through the
notion of a ‘divine right of kings’ which suggested kings were appointed by God,
and therefore, any attempt to kill or remove them was regarded as sinful and
wicked. Such sentiments were also reflected in the lyrics of hymns such as ‘All
Things Bright & Beautiful’- ‘the rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate, God
made them high and lowly and ordered their estate’. In other cultures, for example,
India, we can see these ideological ideas embodied in the caste system. In summary,
then, religion as the opiate of the people encouraged the poor and working-class to
forget about the real conditions of their existence, i.e. the poverty, hopelessness etc,
and to get their satisfaction from religion instead. In other words, it functioned to
dull the pain of their exploitation and oppression by the ruling capitalist class. It
dulls their senses so that they experience false class consciousness – they cannot see
the real cause of their problems, that the organisation of capitalism is loaded against
them.

However, Marxism has been criticised for neglecting secularisation –how can
religion be ideological if people no longer attend church or believe in God? Others
have suggested religion is no longer important as an ideological agency in the West
and that education and mass media are now more important.

Postmodernists are critical of Marxism because they point out that monolithic
religions have fragmented and are no longer influential. Religion is now
Beliefs in Society Full Model Exam Paper 4

characterised by a religious marketplace in which people actively pick and choose

their beliefs and practices rather than having religion imposed on them from

An important criticism is that religions seem to exist in some form in all societies,
especially pre-industrial and therefore pre-capitalist ones. There is also some
evidence that some fundamentalist religions may have developed as a reaction and
as a form of resistance to global capitalism.

Engels suggests that Marx was wrong to see religion as always supporting the
interests of the ruling class. He argued that although religion was mainly ideological
as Marx argued, in some circumstances religion could actually act in an anti-
capitalist way and assist in the overthrow of repressive regimes as it did during the
Arab Spring between 2010 and 2014.

On the other hand, in contrast to Marxism, as stated in Item B functionalists believe

that religion is both positive and beneficial for society. First, Durkheim notes that
religion is an important agency of secondary socialisation which functions to teach
members of society particular values and norms which have been invested with a
sacred or moral quality. Socialisation into these codes produces value consensus –
almost universal agreement about how people should behave.

Second, Durkheim also believed that religion encourages us to believe that we all
belong to the same moral community, e.g. in the UK, it is traditional to see ourselves
as a Christian society. This encourages us to feel a strong sense of belonging to
society, to feel part of a greater community and consequently to conform to the
consensus. Religion in this sense binds us together as a society –in fact, Durkheim
suggests that the worship of God is actually the worship of society.

Despite secularisation, religion may still have a role and function to play in modern
Western societies. The evidence also suggests that religion is important in a global
context. Both Christian and Islamic fundamentalist movements appeal to the poor of
the developing world and suggest that their oppression is linked to economic and
social deprivation. It remains to be seen whether their solutions to the poverty of
their believers will merely dull the pain of their oppression by promising
compensation in the after-life or come up with realistic answers to their
predicament.
Beliefs in Society Full Model Exam Paper 4