Religion and New Age Movements

Using material from item A and elsewhere, assess the view that most spate instantly see apparitionality and phantasmal belief as purely snobbish and personal subjects. In club today theology can be seen in two different ways, as a nonpublic and personal function or something to share with your community.Some sociologists would conclude that morality and eldritchity is a private matter because of televangelism, which is where pot watch their devotions services on tv or go on online church buildinges in the whiff and privacy of their own home when we render idle time provided some other sociologists beseech that this does non typify that faith and spirituality is a private matter, still that we have to use televangelism delinquent to the detail we zippy in a postmodern ball club which means society is constantly changing and causes us to lead hectic intentstyles.This also links in with vicarious worship, which is where a subtile group of mess practice for the wider community. A nonher reason why sociologists would get by that religion and spirituality is a private matter is that there has been a large increase in new mount up movements, such as horoscopes, tarot cards and Wicca. Which focus on individualistic beliefs and self-healing, increase hearts of these springing up indicates that because we live in a postmodern society we are starting to focus on ourselves more meaning that our beliefs are becoming privatised.Other sociologists would beg against this by saying that they are not a true picture of our phantasmal beliefs, and are in fact, just fads, which we can natural selection and choose whether, we entrust in them and shamt necessarily trust in them throughout our whole lives. This is linked to spiritual shopping, which is where we pick and choose which parts of different religions we turn over in. Our beliefs are not a set mental synthesis and we have personal plectron in what we believe. Also, other reaso n why religion may have experience privatised is because of industrialisation, which caused us to no longer live in small tightknit communities.Before industrialisation churches and other religious organisations were often the centre of small tightknit communities and also, there was affectionate stigma attached to not going to church before industrialisation. Industrialisation caused people to go from alimentation in extended families to living in small nuclear families so that they could move round and stimulate work where it was available, This lead to more hectic lifestyles and little time for people to go to churches meaning that they had to make privately.Because of this, industrialisation also therefore decreased the amount of social stigma around not care church allowing people to choose whether they actually precious to go or not. You could betoken that this means that religion is now more pure because we chose what we believe and dont just believe so that we lodg e into the rest of society. On the other hand, other sociologists argue that there are still other religious people about that still live in tightknit communities such as Muslims.Muslims tend to use their religion as a form of cultural demurrer to protect their identity from scrutiny from outsiders of their religion. But other sociologists would argue that this is a Eurocentric argument because Muslims do not use their religion as a form of cultural defence outside of Europe, and the reason they do it here is because of how they are represented in the media and because people connect them with fundamentalist attacks that happen causing islamaphobia, Which is the irrational fear of Islam.Structural differentiation has meant that religion has become more privitised because we now live in a multi-cultural society we now have more selection in what we believe in allowing us to spiritual shop Lyon did a study called Jesus in Disneyland believes that we have become religious consumers, m eaning that me pick and choose what we believe from all the different religions in the world. This has been made possible because of globalisation creating stronger links between different countries and allowing us to have access to duple types of religions with all different norms and values.This gives us greater choice between what we believe in and what we dont. at that place are more methodological capers with measuring whether religion has become privatized, on of these problems is that how do you measure how many religious organisations there are? this is a problem because it is near impossible to count every iodine religious organisation in the world because of the amount of cults and sects that exist that not everybody may now about. Sociologists argue that there has been a decrease on the digit of religious organisations, and therefore religious belief is decreasing, but they do not take into account that it may not be religious belief that is declining, but that la ck of funding has meant that the religious beliefs could not extend forcing people into practise privately, Also, how do you define what a religious organisation is.Another problem with measuring whether religion has become privatised is that you cant know what people are thinking, just because they dont construe a religious organisation, it doesnt necessarily mean that they are not religious, they may just not have the time to visit the organisation so instead use things like televangelism to practise at home.Also, just because people dont encounter religious organisations often, Stark and Bainbridge believe that the decline in traditional religions has created a demand for newer religions, this includes new age movements that focus on private practice. They believe this is due to people being naturally religious and needing religion as a compensator during times of crisis. They think that people still turn to religion for rites of passage and in times of life crisis, so, when p eople feel their life is unstable and they need something to make them feel better.