The functionalism of religion

[MusicLovingAtheist]

I want you guys to help me fill in some of my ambiguity of thoughts here. I do have a couple of my own ideas here too.

Sociology class has been opening my mind to new questions about the world, if not teaching me anything. We've been learning about functionalist perspective. A sociological perspective is that "each aspect of society is interdependent and contributes to society's stability and functioning as a whole." Not sure if I would put it any other way than cliffnotes put it, but that is the definition.

So according to a functionalist perspective, religion is functional for society. I want to know exactly how religion actually serves society in any productive ways. I am going to give some examples and explain how I feel that religion is unnecessary. I think it is unnecessary all together. Some examples I have heard for why religion is functional to society is that it's a community function. It's true that people do get together to congregate at churches. But couldn't there also be other community functions that could be equally as beneficial? I digress, moving on to more examples; some people say that religion provides morality. This is one argument that I have attacked vigorously, and am still adamantly opposed to. It's an argument that suggests that religion provides the basis for morality.

I'll try to dive a little deeper dichotomy of this argument. To a religious person, they suppose that without fear of god, people can't be moral. They even go as far to say that without religious morality, morals are just the mechanical functions of a biological machine. Maybe I'm misinterpreting something here, but it seems like an irrational fear of the unknown to me; it simply shows that a religious person fears a human without god. They see them as cold, calculating, living meaningless lives. To any human atheist (we are all human, they haven't created artificial intelligence yet), I think I speak for everyone when I say that that is a tacitly absurd statement, to say that we live emotionless and meaningless lives. It's downright insulting.

So what roles does religion play to support the function of society? Some would say that it provides comfort in times of stress. I feel that religion provides a crutch to which people use instead of facing reality. As an atheist myself, I can distinguish the difference between the way I deal with things, and the way religious people deal with things. To me, faith is to hide from the truth "The way to see by faith, is to shut the eye of reason." -Benjamin Franklin. To a religious person, the concept of non existence is replaced with the concept of the spirit. It stresses me when a person dies, but interestingly, it would seem that my emotional response to the death of a loved one is the same as a religious person. Again, they're so afraid of the unknown that they feel they should replace real answers with fake ones. In reality, if they didn't do that, they wouldn't be any worse for wear.

All of these things have been discussed to death. I believe that there are no truly original thoughts, and the ones that are original are the ones that win Nobel prizes. No one is winning a Nobel prize for trying to reject religion. There's too many conservatives who are afraid of changes in society for that to happen. It seems to me that religion is dysfunctional. From my atheist perspective, it seems we're outgrowing it. As the world becomes more efficient and intellectual, the more I see religion on the decline. The more liberal, ideologically and socially I see religion becoming. I don't think anyone follows their religion to a T. Things that are emerging in society today would have been unthinkable just a century ago. We have free immediately accessible porn, woman's rights, gay rights, African american rights, a surge of rock and roll and new music, widespread social media. Some would say that we're on a decline. That seems tacitly absurd to me. It seems we're on the rise. We're breaking free from out immature and ineffective past, and becoming a better and smarter culture. Religion is just a conservative mindset. It annoys me when people say it has a place in our world.

I wonder if we're even even going to question whether or not religion is functional in our sociology class.

[DramaQueen]

unthinkable just a century ago

It's still unthinkable in places like the Muslim countries

[MusicLovingAtheist]

unthinkable just a century ago

It's still unthinkable in places like the Muslim countries

Good point.

[Chad32]

Religion functions as a way to control the masses. That's its role in society. It's just one of many tools that leaders use to project their authority on others. If a guy is demanding a bunch of people do as he says, they may decide to ignore him. If he says he's a messenger of god, then people have to listen.

I wouldn't say religion is a productive force in society. It's done more harm than good. People may talk about how much money christian organizations rake in for charity work, but that's overshadowed by all the bad that religion has done. Wars, persecution, ect.

[lifesagift]

Distil your question a little if you want a broader response...

[MusicLovingAtheist]

Distil your question a little if you want a broader response...

I already made the thread and I can't edit it or delete it. I don't know what you expect me to do.

[Michael B]

If we are focussing on the function of religion, then certainly religion has been functional in my life and the life of my family. Examples would include:

1) A place to explore and express the sense of the numinous. Bringing us in touch with others, both past and present, who also have explored this sense.

2) A place to explore and discuss morality.

3) A place that encourages and facilitates quiet reflection (in 'retreats').

4) A vehicle of charity, both locally and internationally. As a family we've been involved with this both practically (giving time) and financially (giving money to both huge and very small international projects).

5) A place of education: both our children benefited from an absolutely superb Christian school that had both brilliant academic results and encouraged a charitable attitude in life (the school supports education and welfare in a town in Uganda, for example).

6) A social framework that brings together people from very different backgrounds (e.g. age, income, education).

7) A community that is supportive, both emotionally and practically, when going through anxious or troubled times.

8) A place and community that supports discernment of direction in life.

So for me personally there is absolutely no question about whether religion can add to the functioning of society: it simply has for me, my family and my friends. What I find I more interesting is how atheists might bring some of the functionality we perhaps take for granted into their own communities (or whether, elsewhere, that functionality is simply lost). I see things like the 'Sunday Assembly' trying to do some of the above, though it is perhaps a little early to see whether they can build a genuinely supportive community (I hope they do).

So, that's just a personal reflection.

[genkaus]

I think you are looking at religion from "modern Christian" perspective. That is basically where Christianity has been pared down to bone and the only functions it serves are Church or Holiday related. A look at a more diverse cross-section would give a better idea about the function of religion within society.

For example, it provides tradition and structure to a person's daily life - like fasting on certain days or having a ritual every morning. A lot of people need that sort of structure in life - I have no idea why they'd need it, but apparently, they do.

It also lays out the infrastructure for a lot of momentous occasions in life. Like birth or marriage or death - there is already a system in place with what to do and how to do it with no reason to try and figure it out all by yourself.

As for the community function - it includes more than just Church congregation. There are festivals and events that require active participation and are open to all - not just those you'd rather associate with. There maybe other alternatives that are more beneficial, but it'd be tougher to get people to participate without any obligation over them.

Finally, in most societies, religion is so closely tied with the cultural heritage that it'd be nearly impossible to separate one from the other.