Question

Modernity and religion

Answer 1

Modernity and Religion The substantive definition of religion concerns the belief in a God, an all powerful creator and the rituals and practices associated with the worship of that God. Perhaps the most significant effect of modernity on religion is that of secularisation.Rudolph Bultmann argues that "It is impossible to use electric devices and take advantage of modern medical discoveries, and at the same time believe in the New Testament world of spirits and miracles." Perhaps the most widely known direct scientific challenge to the authority of religion was Charles Darwin's Origin of Species (1859) where he concluded that life had evolved through a process of natural selection and not therefore by intelligent design. As people influenced by Modernity none of the founding fathers of sociology believed religion was anything more than an illusion and as such they focused on the role of religion in society not theology or religious doctrine.

As Modernity was synonymous with structure, religion tended to be monotheistic and monopolistic. There was one God in which we believed and the Church monopolised religious knowledge and authority. So we did not have a great deal of choice over religious or spiritual affairs

Modernity tells us a great deal about how to make sense of a part of history in West European societies. A passive ontological view where deference and structure were more powerful than agency and self determination seems clear. A belief in the inevitable progress of man through science, technology and rationality was also inextricably linked to Modernity. Yet science was not the only truth regime to operate during Modernity. Ideology and religion were also powerful belief systems of the period and collective worship appeared to be increasing with scientific development right up to the turn of the twentieth century. However, those who attack Modernity because its association with the secularisation thesis fail to appreciate the Victorian civic nature of church attendance. Social pressure, seeking respectability or business reasons would have been instrumental in motivating people to attend religious services at the time. Such pressure actually supports Modernity because it is based on a macro structural view of society where social institutions are powerful and social actors relatively weak. Just as inclusivity, tolerance and gender equality has changed the nature of religious institutions today, so science changed religion under Modernity. Sermons which threatened worshippers with eternal damnation if they sinned fell out of favour and contrary to the views of Bultmann, people could believe in science and religion. Science and the progress it created inhabited the world of the profane and religion inhabited the world of the sacred. However, what we can be sure about was that Modernity ushered in a new era where religion was to be the junior partner to science. Whereas the effect of science could be seen and felt all around every day, religious practice became more infrequent as the twentieth century progressed.

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