hello uh today's video is just going to be outlining the introduction for beliefs in society for the aqa module so this is really just outlining everything in terms of initial definitions and keywords that we looked at in lesson so in today's videos we aim to discuss and define different religion and belief systems and then to understand the different definitions for religion as well as we know that there are several definitions which we'll be looking at and looking at several types of religions as well now just a simple definition of religion so religion is a belief in worship of the supernatural so real big emphasis on that and a more specific definition given by robertson here is religion is a belief in worship of supernatural beings which have a governing effect on human behavior so within the second part of the definition there the governing effect on human behavior so clearly giving definite defined guidelines as to how individuals should be acting in terms of um religious beliefs and how what they should be doing in society now a belief system is any integrated set of ideas which influences the way that people see the world belief systems can take several forms but the most important types are religious political and scientific now this is important that we realize that there are these three major belief systems that influence an individual's lives because often we just get focused down on one or the other now religion can be difficult to define but any definition is usually based on a belief in the existence of supernatural entities or other forces and religions may or may not claim the existence of a supreme god or several gods now for us really here this is a good point for us to really recognize and take note of because when it comes around to identifying the different types of religion we're going to look at now the definitions of them and really try to get some contextualized information about these different religious sex and systems now first and foremost the first one that we're looking at here is monotheistic now this is a belief in a single god now a single god is then governing and giving out the instructions on how individuals should be living their lives so obviously an example as we can see is with christianity now polytheistic is belief in several gods so the example of here we've got is hinduism and other ancient religions such as greek and roman and where obviously they had several gods which governed and then dictated how individuals should be behaving we've got spiritual religion without a belief in god um example here is it's more of a system which dictates and encourages humans to behave in specific ways to be kind to one another and to nature around them now example this is buddhism where no god that exists um but rather set of values to adhere to which obviously buddha gives individuals that system then we've got cult with supernatural beliefs but no concept of god an example of this would be heaven's gate cult which we'll be discussing later on in another video we've got animism here which is a belief in non-human beings slash gods which obviously really encourages that connection between nature and humans as well now one we've got here is indigenous nature worship by the shinto religions then we've got totalism which is human natural being connection and it's overdrawing natural american beliefs all of which i have got resources on which have been given to you guys in lesson have in terms of belief system particularly when it looks at religious belief systems we are missing one massive one which is atheism now atheism can still be considered a part of the type of religious beliefs and to an extent because it is a belief system which then informs individuals how they should be acting and behaving obviously they ignore the fact that god does exist or they disbelieve that there is a supernatural being however as much they might argue it still falls within this religious belief system as terms of the definitions now religious beliefs are some sort are present in every known human society but the nature of those beliefs varies considerably now any definition of those beliefs must encompass this variety so really early studies of religion as a response to human needs both emotional and intellectual the fact that from the earliest periods of man's existence religion has played a major role in human life illustrates its universal importance religion are and provides us with questions and answers to the reasons for the life's big questions such as la as birth death and marriage explains why that all happens in terms of our society and provides us a guide to behavior to be one of those saved one of those elect from that community now social just tend to adopt either a functional or substantive approach to defining religion and we're going to look at those in a bit more detail now now the substitutive a really definition here um these are concerned with the content of religion so for example junior in 1981 define religion as a system of beliefs and practices by the means of which a group of people struggles with the ultimate problems of life therefore this is helping individuals gain the understanding of what is going on in their life and how they could possibly deal with it as a result and really then providing them with that support and nurturing feeling as a result so for example when there is a drought or famine obviously the substance definitions gives the individuals a bit more of a reason and a explanation as to why that is happening to them now a functional definition here these but these define religion in terms of its functions it performs for society and for individuals so for example durkheim in 1961 defined religion in terms of distinction between two domains in the world one of which is sacred and the other profane things in the sacred domain produce a sense of or respect whereas profane does not durkheim even thought that nationalism was a type of religion he called a civil religion because it has similar functions to more conventional religions now obviously we've got an example of here in terms of those two domains which durkheim initially really focuses down on we've got the shroud of cheering here as you can see in the picture now the shredded cheering is seemingly the cloth in which jesus christ's body was wrapped in and there were left blood stains in it and when they analyzed it they could they could see clearly see defined an outline of body with um marks and potential damage done to it which could which is similar to the injuries in which jesus sustained from the bible stories so obviously for this it attracts individuals it is a piece of history which is revered and really respected highly so as we could probably point out here this is in fact a sacred object purely because individuals do respect it and it's not treated as an everyday object as a result now here is just a little bit of extra information about the shroud of turin for you so the shroud of turin is a 4.4 meter long piece of cloth that many christians believe that was used to shroud jesus's face and body and this will go back into display on sunday in the italian cities cathedral and the cloth which appears to show the imprint of a man's face and the body markings that would match those of a person who's crucified and as you can see in the picture it's not very clear but you can see the outline of a body yep so i'll see that is the face there and then you can see the body emerging like that if that's any help for you so obviously they believe that this was the clothing which was used when wrapped in jesus body when he was crucified so for us it is a sacred object people would not be treating this as a object which they could just touch and do anything to it would be very very special for anyone who even came to see it because they would believe that it would increase their connection with god as a result now the main main thing here that we've got to identify is here are some examples of um functional religions now the cult of celebrities possibly is another possibility every year elvis fans go on a pilgrimage to his home graceland and there have been many stories that he's still alive and people of people um fans have claimed to have felt his presence and even claimed he has cured them of disease many teenagers bedrooms become shrines to pop stars or footballers like david beckham and some would argue that consumerism is the new religion in the west we want heaven on earth and now it is it is to be given achieved by buying goods and services which are given which give us our identity and dictate how we feel and view society and how we should behave in society as well because if we look at for example here a very popularized at the minute the kylie jenner challenge so obviously the kylie jen challenge it gave girls a set a set of ideas and guidelines and what they need to do to really be like her so in itself here the consumeristic ideals um individuals are buying into this and then obviously acting out and they would do this in terms of other people as well so obviously michael jackson and visiting his um properties and all that people might claim to feel his presence because he's such a big character and idol within their lives now all the definitions emphasize certain aspects of religion and or ignore others so functional definitions tend to be too inclusive it's too easy to qualify as religion while substantive ones tend to be too exclusive and it's difficult to qualify as religion now this issue becomes more important when we consider whether religion has declined so when we talk about secularization which is the separation of church and state so the fact that the church will no longer have any true influence on what the state does so separating the two from one another which is actually as we can see has happened within societies such as france now if we judge the substantive definitions we are looking at decline in belief in god however that if we may define in functional terms it may be that religion is becoming replaced by other things that perform similar functions such as celebrities now here are the criticisms of the two definitions so functional definitions tend to include many things some would not regard as religious eg nationalism which is the idea of the civil religion which durkheim outlines and perhaps science has replaced origin in answering some of the fundamental questions so it's now because we've taken on that positivist view that we are now understanding and really appreciating that life can be based off of the scientific objective beliefs rather than these religious supernatural powers now our substance definitions are too narrow and many are based on western monotheistic religions now have a quick little think what does monotheistic mean again remember monotheistic is literally the belief in a single god and we can see this with example religion such as christianity islam and judaism now obviously within the western world we've now seen the idea of nationalism really starting to take over in some portions of the society now durkheim even thought that nationalism was a type of religion he called it a civil religion because as similar functions to more conventional religions now the idea of a civil religion has been particularly criticized for stretching the definition of the functional definition to include beliefs that have no supernatural elements to them while there have been there might be similarities between nationalism religion beliefs such as nationalism do not provide ultimate meanings about the purpose of life nor do they explain the origins of the universe as many religions claim to now nationalism is providing that consensus those values in which people can use to live and operate by within their societies the example that we looked at here was the reggie eights documentary um and the ideas that are promoted within russian communities because we can see that the idea of nationalism there it's not used as a substitute for religion but it's used as a way of really binding the whole of this community together underneath this one russian ideal of house to the how big and how wonderful their country is now these nationalistic views are can sometimes be problematic but they do give the individuals a set of beliefs which then gives them some stability in their lives now within if we look at the nation the russian views the belief and the understanding of putin does not take over the role of a supernatural being instead he just gives the russian people the idea of that he's strong enough to ensure that he will protect the country's values against the rest of the world he never claims to be a supernatural figure like jesus or god he just gives the idea that he is a strong authoritarian figure and the best bit that we've seen within this documentary is when he shows his strength over nature so when he's picturized or taking pictures with animals and they say that he commands that natural respect of the animals as a result now we can see that yes to an extent those nationalistic figures within russia are forming a civil religion now nationalism this is a very important and if you take a functional approach then the functions could be replaced by other institutions now bella amongst others argue that americanism has become a sort of secular religion in the usa people like george washington lincoln etc have become saints in people's ideas because they have been able to unite the nation as a whole and under that one flag and underneath that one national anthem all of these figures in all of these items are treated as sacred as a result um similar claims obviously made about russia as we've just discussed and other communist countries where lenin marx etc were almost worshiped about their writings and they became biblical in a sense now religious belief systems remain dominant in some parts of the world although western societies alternatively systems have become more influential since the 18th century and these include the political belief system and the scientific belief system now the political belief systems are based on views about how society should be organized and do not have a supernatural element to them nevertheless political beliefs can be strongly held that that they lead to violent wars and the persecution of social groups exams political belief systems include the belief in the free market capitalism sometimes called neoliberalism now marxism socialism liberalism and so on now communism was influential in the soviet union from 1917 to 1990. communists believe that the means of production each in land and factories should be run by the state rather than owned by individuals to create greater equality then the next belief system that we encounter is fascism which was influential in nazi germany from 1933 to 1945. proponents believe that the interests of the state should be paramount and that this required the leadership of the authoritarian dictator who pursued the interests of the nation now we're going to give a bit of a definition of neoliberalism here now neoliberalism here is belief in free markets and this is influential in contemporary usa neoliberals believe that the private enterprise is the best way to run society and that competition drives efficiency and ensures consumers needs are met now that is the outline of the political belief system the next one that we're going to look at is the scientific belief system now scientific belief system and have their basis in the belief that is it possible to understand the natural world and produce truthful knowledge about it they can use they can be used to justify surgical behavior and to criticize others eg behavior relating to health now this is because we've started to adapt and really take on this idealist this positivist and perspective so it really creates this objectivity in terms of our values now birthdays in 1963 defines objectivity as meaning that the conclusions arrived as a result of inquiry or investigation are independent of the race colour creed occupation nationality religion moral preference and political predisposition of the investigator in contrast value-laden beliefs are influenced by the moral preferences of an individual and are least partially subjective based on personal opinion and not unbiased truth generally the followers of religious political and scientific belief systems do not believe them to be value laden but seen see see them as objective however others may well see them as bi-style ideologies now an ideology simply a defines belief system that supports the interests of a particular social group at the expense of others now the ideologies can be used to maintain the power of a dominant group in society and religious political and scientific belief systems have been seen as ideological and so all of these are fundamentally leading and uniting individuals under one common theme based underneath one religious values political values or scientific ideology all of this is absolutely crucial for us to recognize and as we can see scattered throughout all of this information we can tend to argue that we can see the emergence of the approaches which we're going to be looking at further in subsequent videos