Functionalist Perspective on Religion, Stresses Term Paper

them mentality' provoking social intolerance and social or potentially violent military conflict with a religious society's differently believing neighbors. At best religion stifles individual creativity within a society, as people become afraid to espouse alternative points-of-view. The development of the Christian religion that coincided with a rise in anti-Semitism, as Christians reacted with intolerance against a smaller, minority religion is one example, as might be the lack of dissent advocated with excessively homogeneous neighborhoods in the racially polarized South of the 1950's. Thus the conflict perspective stresses the ability of dearly held, intransient beliefs to create negative forms of conflict and to stifle positive forms of dissent and creative perspectives upon life that differ with the hegemonic view. Because religious worldviews cannot be questioned by logic, they become entrenched, and create more negative societal views and conflict with others who believe differently.Works Cited

Curry, Tim; Jiobu, Robert; and Schwirian, Kent (2004). Sociology for the Twenty-first Century. Fourth Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

See Curry et al.2002, p.384

See Curry….....