predictions for the AQA A2 SCLY3 exam on 22nd January for beliefs in society?

you revise the night before and get full marks:O whoa what a genius, i've been revising for weeks and would be lucky to get a B on this paper!

Whoa whoa whoa whoa wait a second. What exactly is a belief system in sociological terms?
Is it just how subjective science is with its failings etc?

Can anyone help me with Secularisation?
Main people who say its happening and why..
More importantly who say it isn't and why

Good revision for those of you who know it to tell me :P
it gets you thinking..
And i need help! lol

Lol doing this is the only way i can justify to myself that im "revising" . Before you start reading im terribly sorry for all of my typos and spelling mistakes, im very bad =/

FIRST AND FORMOST- Religion is a hard concept to operrationalise, Do you count "bums on pews" do you look at the figures where people "practice" their religion or do you look at wether people "belive" as grace davie calls it. Wilson defines sec as "the process whereby relgious thinking, practice and institution become less significant" and Tylor gives the deffinition of religion as "The belife in supernatural beings" but both of these definitons can be critisied because ......... (think of something XD)

-When comparing to old past stastics there are always room for error. For example, looking at church attendance back in say for example the 1800's might not give a true image of how "religious" they were. They might have only gone to church because it was the norm, not auctaly because they belived in christianity. Hamilton 2001, notion of an age of faith in the past is an illusion.

Fuctionalists belive society isnt becomming secularized,

-Religion is just another part of the body and society needs it to function so its unable to "disapear"

- Durkheim, "The elementary forms of religion" Compared toterism, (worshipped by Australian aborigines) to society, saying how that by worshipping the totem (which represented societys shard norms and values) they were in fact worshipping society. Thus as long as society exists so will religion.

-Grace Davie - Just because the stastics show a decline in church attendance, people still "belive". Can use exams of tragic accidents to show that people use religion to deal with the stress (examples such as 9/11) Malwaski said that peopel use religion to relive stress so you can link this in

-Bellah 1987, Institutionalised religion is just one form of religion. There are many other forms which are hard to record. Such as NAM's and NRM's where the members arnt counted as much.

-Parsons argued that Securalisation is auctaly good for religion as it will help them concentrate on their "core" purpose. That is to create a value concenus and create moral codes for society, e.g 10 commandments.

Postmodernism- Argue for sec, kind of

-Wilson, Bruce, Wallis. Argue that sec is a development rooted in modernity and focus on three ket processes, rationalization, disengagment and religious pluralism.

-Ever since "The age of enlightment" religious thinking has decreased, with a society demanding both logic and rational thinking. The "sacred" as dukheim defined it no longer has any place in western society. Berger (1973) Christanity has ultimately been its own gravedigger, Protestanitism docused attention on this life, work and the pursuit of prosperity rather than on the domain of god and the afterlife. <----- i love that one :')

-Disengagement. The seperation of the church from wider society. With the churches/religions reduced "sphear of influence" it has less chance to get involved with the every day life of modern socity and thus is having less of an impact on socity itself. (Examples such as how the church no longer controls the education institution, or how R.E is no longer a compulsary subject. Also look at the house of lords reform and how position of many bishops in the house of looks is being looked down apon (yes i take gov and politics Whhhhy is my teacher teaching me religion instead of the politics unit, i do not know )

-Religious pluralism. Bruce argues thatinustrialization has gramneted society into a marketplace of religious and other cummunity organizations. Wilson says that because of this the church / religion is no longer "one" force but many and because of this has less of an impact. He points out the ecumenical movement as an attempt to reverse securarization ( When differnt religions communicate to each to each other in order to try and "join forces" as it were to make their norms and shared values cover a wider range of society.)

-However it can also be seen that the grown in sects and NAM's/NRM's show the complete opposite to secularizaion as it gives people more choice and shows a wider varity of belifs, "variety is the spice of life?" XD

-Stark and Bainbridge, (The secularization cycle) I remember it as S.I.R.D (close to surd, "maths term", anyhow) It goes, Seculatization, innovation, revival, decline.

-Some socilogists say that we are in a state of "innovation" because of the grown of NAM's and NRM's "hint the new", others argue we are in a state of secularization as can be seen with stastics.Nelson says we are undergoing revial and that sec realy happened around the time of enlightment and we are now past this.but

-Heelas et al, said that the grown in New age beliefs also called a "holistic mullieu" show a rejection of science and modernity in the postmodern age. (Also look at the Kendal project which show an increase in these kind of religions)

Ramdom other stuff

-Raise in fundermentalism can show that secularisation is false, also might agree with stark and bainbrige theory. For example Iran, after becomming to westernizied the county demanded security and core values and so reverted back to "old religion" or fundermentalism. This can show that the cycle is Correct.

-Kendal project in kendal (no surprise) shows a raise in NAM's and NRM's

Terroism might be also scaring of some from religion, as they see it as "extreme" and might because of this give caution to it. (P.s this wasnt in the book i just made it up on the spot but its a good argument yes? :P )

-Insert conclusion

Tada? Well that would be my essay, just have to switch some of the paragraphs around to make it look better though :') mix them up and link them up ect ect ect

oh..my...god (haha god..and we're doing religion!..funnier in my head!)

I think I may just actually love you!!
Thank you soo much!!