Project 2: Religion in America

Presented by Group 3: Deniz Childir, Jorge Gomez, Ashley Huynh,

Julie Kutner, Natasha Landes, Monica Renteria

History

● Religion, in one form or another, has been found in all human societies since human societies first appeared. Archaeological digs have revealed ritual objects, ceremonial burial sites, and other religious artifacts.

● Formal religion emerged in America in the 1600’s, as European colonists came to North America seeking freedom from religious persecution.

Sources: U-S-History.com; pbs.org, 2010

Definition

A religion is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems, and worldviews that relate humanity to an order of existence. There is an estimated 4,200 religions all around the world.

Many religions utilize narratives, symbols, and sacred histories in order to help place meaning to life and the universe. From their beliefs about the cosmos and human nature, people can derive morality, ethics, religious laws.

Often, religions may have organized systems of clergy, a definition of what constitutes adherence or membership, and specified places of worship. The practice of a religion may also include ritual acts, sermons, commemoration or veneration of a deity, gods or goddesses, sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trance, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dance, public service or other aspects of human culture.

Source: Fasching and deChant, 2001.

Functionalist Perspective

Emile Durkheim described religion as an aid in understanding with “things that surpass the limits of our knowledge.” Further, he defined religion as, “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say set apart and forbidden, beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community…”Source: Durkheim, 1915.

Functionalism and the Role of Religion

Source: Chris Deakin, 2013, youtube.com.

Conflict Perspective

Karl Marx believed that religion is an “opiate for the masses” as well as being in place to maintain social inequality.

He believed that those who were poor were kept sedated by religion, like a drug, and the bourgeoisie maintained their upper levels of stratification, while the poor accept their fate on religious terms.

Source: Marx, 1964.

Roles in Religion

● The major participants in the institution of religion include clergy, a higher power, and the people who practice the religion.

● A conflict perspective examines the role of women in American religion. This view believes that women do not share the same elevated position of clergy as men do.

Source: Flory, 2010.

Evolution● Over time, the institution of religion

has been drastically changed. Many religious groups have started off small in the past centuries but as time progressed, numerous communities have now expanded.

● As an example, there are many temples and religious buildings that exemplify this expansion.

● Atheists rates in America are decreasing as more people are turning to religion.

Source: CNSNews, 2013.

Religion in America, currently:77% of Americans identify themselves as being Christian.More than 16% don’t identify themselves as religiously connected individuals.Source: Boston.com, 2014.

Religion and the Government

● Americans have the freedom of religion. We are discouraged from mixing religion and government.

● For example, children in public schools are not taught religion, as opposed to children in private schools, where many are required to take religious classes.

● One way to improve the religious freedom we enjoy is to encourage religious diversity in schools. This encouragement could help tolerance for different religions continue to grow.

ConclusionFor the majority of

Americans, religion is a central part of their lives. Religion is the core of their being and the binding of society.

Durkheim viewed religion as an integrative force and a glue for societies. Regardless of what a group of persons believes, religion plays an underlying role in unification.

ReferencesU-S-History. History of Religion in America. Retrieved from

http://u-s-history.com.PBS. (2010). God in America: One: A New Adam. Retrieved from

http://www.pbs.org.Fasching, Darrell J. and deChant, Dell. (2001). Comparative Religious Ethics: A Narrative

Approach. New York: Wiley.Durkheim, Emile. (1915). The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. (Joseph Ward Swain,

Trans.). New York: Macmillan.Deakin, Chris. (2013). Functionalism and the Role of Religion. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com.Marx, K. (1964). Karl Marx: Selected Writings in Sociology and Social

Philosophy. (T.B. Bottomore, Trans). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.Flory, Richard. (2010). The Long View of Women’s Roles in Religion.

Retrieved from http://crcc.usc.edu.Chapman, Michael W. (2013). Global Study: Atheists in Decline, Only 1.8% of

World Population by 2020. Retrieved from http://www.cnsnews.com.Boston.com. (2014). America’s Most Religions by State (Besides Christianity).

Retrieved from http://www.boston.com.