Wednesday, September 18, 2019
religions function in society Essay -- essays research papers
Religion has many functions within a society, both social and psychological. According to Ferraro (308) three such social functions are social control, conflict resolution, and intensifying group solidarity. Religion seems to help maintain a social order. It appears to do this by encouraging what a given society deems acceptable behavior and discouraging socially inappropriate behavior. â€Å"Every religion, regardless of the form it takes, is an ethical system that prescribes proper way of behaving.†(Ferraro 308) This social order of rewards and punishment is reinforced when backed by supernatural authority. Thus one’s neighbor may be exorcized from his or her community when a behavior is seen as socially unacceptable or inappropriate. Examples of this in the Jewish-Christian community would be the breaking of the Ten Commandments such as stealing, committing adultery, or murdering.      Another social function of religion is to â€Å"enable people to express their common identity in an emotionally charged environment†( Ferraro 308). Group solidarity is intensified for those who practice it. When members of a religious group come together to practice religious beliefs, they often bond by participating in other non-religious activities as well. (Ferraro 308) People find religion an easy way to identify with one another. Religion helps to form community, schools, and even government. People who are ‘more’ religious tend to hold more conservative attitudes on sexuality and personal honesty. They are also likely to hold more conservative attitudes about family life, being more likely, for instance, to support the use of corporal                                                   Vaeth 2 punishment in disciplining children. Strongly religious people also tend to be more accepting and satisfied with their lives and marriages. This is perhaps because they do not question what is unknown. It is perhaps merely accepted upon faith. (Brinkerhoff, White, Ortega 295-305)      Religion also plays the role of reducing stress and frustrations that often lead to social conflict. (Ferra... ...d in a variety of religions.      Rituals are usually practiced within a group of people, many times forming a community such as a church. Going to service every Sunday is a ritual. Meeting a group of friends every Friday night after work for a drink is a ritual. Rituals are spiritual and nonspiritual, religious and magical.      The core elements of religion, belief, ritual, and myth bring people together just as much as they divide them into groups. Religion helps people find personal identity and fit into a community. Being divided into groups is not necessarily a bad thing. It is human nature. If mankind isn’t divisive over religion, it’s over politics, if not politics, then something else. In my perspective, it is not religion that creates the division; it’s the people. According to Ferraro, (322) â€Å"religion has played an important role in global social change through liberation theology (whereby Catholic priests and nuns work for social reform and justice for the poor) and religious nationalism (whereby religious beliefs are merged with government institutions).†         Â
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