Sociologists seek to establish the organization of a religion searching to explain what forces hold the region together and what factors will lead to growth or decline of the religious beliefs. Religion has three key terms which include; being a form of culture; it takes the form of ritualised people and fit also provides a sense of purpose.

Religion may be defined in very many ways as there is no single way to define religion (Birnbaum and Lenzer et al., 1969). It is mostly defined according to the context of the definition. First context is the inclusive definition of religion that views religion as a very wide aspect as all the forces that shape the human destiny. This definition involves all human beings, regardless of the race or tribe; it is too wide.

In the world today, geography mostly determines a person’s religion this is because except for a few exceptions who change the religion afterward, many believe in what they are told either from their parents or from the community that they grow (Davie, 2007). Spirituality rarely comes from within but rather it is thrust upon individuals by the culture that they come. This is because there will always be a strong relationship between an individual culture and the religion that he or she believes.

There are few problems that are associated with defining religion; some of this includes the following-;

It is unclear on how to separate culture of people in the society and what the scholars would call religion. Many people have borrowed most of their cultural practices and adapted them to fit what they have termed as religion, this has failed to meet the qualifications of what scholars would describe as religion;(Giddens and Birdsall, 2001) they mostly term those as traditional and societal practices.

The other great challenge is the narrowness of the definition of religion. Grip of the definition of religion is usually narrow as it mostly depicts a belief in God; this is very wide as it does not specify the God the people believe. Atheists also believe in religion; however, they do not believe in God and hence the scope becomes too narrow to include those who believe in different faiths. If one tries to include all types of believing, the definition becomes vague, if it adopts such a definition as the world view; it becomes unclear on how a world view can be a religion yet all people in the world do not share a common view on issues.

Despite these challenges to define religion, there have been theories that have been brought up trying to explain the scope of religion. One of the most analytical theories is the theory that stated that religion is not only a social creation but rather it is society diminished. It points out that the supernatural powers that all men believe in common only project the power of the society, it claims that the religion is not controlled by any outside power but rather it is all social (Kung, 1986). It is due to this common belief in the society that human beings will give credit to the unseen deities as they term them more significant. Due to this credit they accord them, they are able to visualize the deity’s power mostly because they believe that they exist.

Marx saw religious beliefs as just standards that are set out by the society to act as the opium of the masses. He argued that society depended much on divine power to shape an individual’s life while, in fact, the lives of the individuals solely lay on their hands and that of the society to shape it (Weber, 1963). He argued that the religion was only used to support the place of the rich in the society while giving the poor some hope to live by. The rich extort from the poor using religion and the religion tends to act as a haven and thus providing some comfort to the poor and the powerless.

The variation in various religions can be established by the various religions that exist. The world biggest religions include Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all these religions have their roots in idle east; other religions include; Buddhism has the major influence of the East and Hinduism.

Christianity is one of the largest religions in the world. They believe in a supernatural being “God” and his son Jesus who issue directives on how people should live in the world using the bible. They believe in the existence of prophets who were sent by God to deliver his message. It stresses that people can be saved when people convert to certain beliefs and start having certain moral codes. It stresses on the continued struggle against sin.

On the other hand, Hinduism and Buddhism trace their origin from India; they do not believe in existence of prophets with Hindus believing in the existence of many gods, while Buddhist does not believe in existence of any god (Weber, 1963). Hinduism main stress point is attainment of higher levels of spirituality by escaping from the normal course of earthly acts. The perspective does not lend itself to earning and spending money as one is supposed to focus on increasing spiritual levels.

However, all the religions agree on one common thing, that there is an evil power that tend to fight to control the human behavior, and they also believe in the existence of life after death(Menzies, 1903). Although they believe on different destinations, it is a common view that even after a person’s death; the soul will continue to exist. They also all have holy books that they believe that they dictate on what human beings should do, and they also explain their relationship with others.

All religions have their ceremonies. These ceremonies and rituals tend to bond together different members who will develop a sense of solidarity (Weber, 1963). They help people escape from the daily activities of life so that they can have a special bonding with the gods. They perform sacred rituals, and they might include sacred objects that they believe have divine properties that will separate them from the profane objects.

There is a connection between gender and religion. Women are considered to be more interested in religion than men; this is mostly due to the fact of socialization as women love socializing more than men (Thomas, 1979). Despite this fact, many religions still do not recognize women as they do not give those equal chances in the places of worship.

It is argued that religion influence on the people will most probably decrease in the future because as people become more liberalized, they will realize that their problems are not related to religion. People will develop better ways of handling their problems rather than persevering with hopes of being better in the future.

References

Birnbaum, N., Lenzer, G. and Hume, D. 1969. Sociology and religion: a book of readings. Prentice-Hall.

Davie, G. 2007. The sociology of religion. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.

Giddens, A. and Birdsall, K. 2001. Sociology. Cambridge [England]: Polity Press.

Kung, H. 1986. Christianity and the world religions: paths of dialogue with Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.Doubleday.

Menzies, A. 1903. History of religion. New York: Scribner’s Sons.

Thomas, D. 1979. Naturalism and social science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Weber, M. 1963. The sociology of religion. Boston, MA.: Beacon Press.