Assess the view that a process of rationalisation has led to secularisation in western societies?
One of the major debates in the sociology of religion is concerned with the extent to which modern industrial societies have become secularised. The founding fathers of sociology saw secularisation as the inevitable outcome of modernisation. Comte, Durkheim and Weber each assumed that when societies achieved scientific and technological complexity, individuals would cease to rely on religious meanings and explanations and instead use rational explanations to understand their world. It seems important to acknowledge then that religion should be understood, at least in part, as a source of knowledge. Both sociologists and philosophers have made a comparison between science and religion as belief systems. A belief system is a set of beliefs and ideas, which help people to make sense of and interpret the world. A community of experts who claim a special insight into the truth also supports such systems.
Durkheim was one of the first to point to the connection between religion and other forms of knowledge. He claimed that it was through religion that humans first attempted to interpret the world and that it is from religion that other ways of thinking, such as science, evolved. Weber argued that as societies became industrialised, rational and scientific ideas would destroy traditional and irrational sources of authority and belief such as religion. Our way of interpreting the world became in Weber's terms less enchanted and sacred.
Rationalisation as an ideal type and as an historical force appears in much of Weber's writings. He regards the development of rational forms to be one of the most important characteristics of the development of Western society and capitalism. Weber particularly looked at the protestant work ethic and saw that unlike Catholics who confessed that they are assured a place in heaven the Calvinists believed in an all powerful god who decided thus they felt a necessity to work hard in this world - in order to try to get to be one of the chosen
Durkheim was one of the first to point to the connection between religion and other forms of knowledge. He claimed that it was through religion that humans first attempted to interpret the world and that it is from religion that other ways of thinking, such as science, evolved. Weber argued that as societies became industrialised, rational and scientific ideas would destroy traditional and irrational sources of authority and belief such as religion. Our way of interpreting the world became in Weber's terms less enchanted and sacred.
Rationalisation as an ideal type and as an historical force appears in much of Weber's writings. He regards the development of rational forms to be one of the most important characteristics of the development of Western society and capitalism. Weber particularly looked at the protestant work ethic and saw that unlike Catholics who confessed that they are assured a place in heaven the Calvinists believed in an all powerful god who decided thus they felt a necessity to work hard in this world - in order to try to get to be one of the chosen