Lesson video

Hi, I'm Mrs Cooper.

You might remember me from such lessons as Atheism a History, Humanism or The Scientific Understanding of the Big Bang.

Today's lesson we're going to focus on looking at something specific called Marxism, which is a type of sociology.

When you're ready, grab a pen, a piece of paper and another colour pen and somewhere comfortable to sit down.

And if you're not using your phone for this lesson, please turn it off.

So in this lesson we will describe the sociological objection to the existence of God.

Illustrate the sociological objection using an example and critically analyse the sociological objection and come to judgement about it's success.

When you're ready, make sure you've got two different coloured pens and pencils, and some papers or rough book.

Now earlier we've talked about sociological objection, but what we really need to do to begin with is unpick what the word sociology means.

So it is generally the study of society, so essentially it means that we have to study why people do things, the effect of society on or certain parts of society on other things.

We might look at the effect of how growing up in a poor household will have a different effect to growing from a rich household.

We might look at the effect of why girls do better in school than boys.

But these are all things that we study in sociology.

The next thing, we're to unpick is Marxism it's the social and political idea about society.

So it's a version of events and explanation within sociology.

Marxists believe that the poor are being oppressed by the rich and powerful.

And I'll explain that in a little bit more detail in a minute.

And finally this word oppressed or oppression, it means being subject to harsh treatment.

So Marx believes that the poor are being subject to harsh treatment by the rich.

A must to keep the rich, rich essentially.

Now let's have a check of those explanations your understanding of those key words.

Let's check your ideas.

So there is a true or false.

sociology is the study of socialising.

That is false, sociology is the study of society, society are all the people around you rather than socialising, which is about being a bit of a chatterbox.

True or false? Oppressed people are subject to harsh treatment by society.

This is true, if you were oppressed, you are being subjected to harsh treatment.

Marxist believe that the poor oppress the rich.

That would be false, almost right Marxists believe that the rich oppress.

So then what is sociology? Well, when we were looking at the previous slides, we talked about the fact that it's the study of society.

It's looking at how different aspects of society influence a person's behaviour.

One of the founders of modern day sociology was a man called Emile Durkheim.

And he did some of the first research studying different groups within society, and that included different religious groups.

Having been brought up in Christian background, he found it incredibly interesting to go and look at tribes in other countries and becoming part of different religions.

In order to conduct this research.

Research is essentially a way of finding out whether things are true and false and gaining certain facts about certain topics.

He would use a mixture of observation, interviews, surveys or questionnaires.

And using these different methods could lead to something that is called going native.

Now going native essentially means that you become so part of the group that you're observing or interviewing that you can no longer study that group objectively.

So for example, when Durkheim would go and study a different tribe that perhaps have a different type of religion as well.

He would sit and observe what they were doing, but in order to properly observe and understand why that tribe or different region works.

He would take part in some of the activities that they're doing and write down how it made him feel.

He would conduct interviews with different members of the tribe or religion to find out how they felt about it and got back to the rituals and things that they did.

He would also conduct questionnaires and surveys to try and work out again more information to find out the truth and the real objective trues behind that particular religion.

But once again, as I said the risk of this would be that if the sociologist went native, I mean, they could no longer look at that religion objectively from the outside.

They could only see it from the perspective of somebody within that region, which may be very different.

So true or false? You must select if the following statements are true or false.

You should write it down true or false on your sheet of paper.

So number one, sociology is the study of society, if you like you can point at the right answer.

Is it true or is it false? It is true very well done.

Number two, sociologists do their research by reading holy books.

Is it true or is it false? It is false.

Some of, sociologists sorry, do their research by reading books for sure but then by observation remember by questionnaires, and by interviews.

Sociologists may learn about a religion through reading part of their holy books, but that's not really where they gain much understanding of the practises and beliefs of that group of people.

Observations are where you take part in religious practise and take notes.

That would be true.

One problem in society in sociology I apologise, could be that the observer goes native.

That is true.

Roger Rabbit was the founder of sociology.

That was false if you remember that would be Emile Durkheim.

And number six, research is the study of something to find out facts.

That is true.

Now I would like you to pause the video, to complete your task.

Copy down the following definition, sociology is the study of society.

And the challenge for you is to write down your own definition in your own words.

During the time of lockdown some of you may have noticed there was something called the temptation challenge going around social media.

Adults would place a small treat, maybe sweets, maybe chocolate cake, maybe chips in front of a child, and tell them that he no circumstances they should eat it.

The adult would then leave the room with a secret video camera to film their child.

Now I did this challenge with my little daughter Lily.

I put a chocolate cake in front of her, a big piece of her favourite chocolate cake and told her that she was not allowed to eat it.

Do you think Lily ate the chocolate cake? Yes or no? I can tell you that she did in fact eat the chocolate.

Now, natty Lily.

Now when I asked the question and I stayed in the room, funny enough Lily he didn't eat chocolate cake.

So if I stayed in the room the whole time I was in the room with her she did not eat the chocolate cake.

Now why I'm I might tell you about my daughter Lily and her love of chocolate and her lack of honesty, wow.

This explains it beautifully with the item we that call Marx, because he argued that religion oppresses poor people.

And one of the arguments to this was that he said when people believe there was a God or somebody looking over them, then people behaved different.

So by a pure belief that there's a wider being that want you to act in a certain way, people would act in that certain way for worry of getting in trouble for doing wrong.

So a little bit more background on Marxism.

Karl Marx was a German philosopher who wrote something called "The Communist Manifesto" with another man called Friedrich Engels.

He believed that the working class were being oppressed by the powerful rich to keep them poor.

All decisions in society were made to keep the poor poor.

He felt that religion was a mechanism for doing this.

Religion helped to keep the poor as the poorest members of society, which in turn kept the rich richer.

He said that people felt that they needed religion for comfort.

And was famous for saying that religion is the opiate of the masses.

Opium is a incredibly addictive drug, which you might know nowadays as heroin.

Marx said that religion was so addicted to people that they felt that they needed it to keep themselves happy and give them meaning in life.

But the addiction to religion was as strong as heroin.

Now remember as well, people think that they really like heroin when taking it but in fact we know that it's terribly bad for them.

So Marx was suggesting that not only is religion keeping poor people wanting things that they can have, but it was also actually bad for them.

He also believed that religion was used to control the poor.

So let's have a look at this in a little bit more detail.

What I'd like you to do is pause the video to complete your task.

In what ways do you think religion oppresses people copy and complete this spider diagram and resume once you're finished.

Now, have a look at my answers and using a different coloured pen pause the video again and add anythings that you didn't have yourself.

Finally, we're going to ask the question is Marxism successful in disproving the existence of God? Lot's of religions offer false comfort to the poor and powerless in society.

Lots of religious beliefs support the rich and powerful in society.

Therefore, religion has probably been created by the rich to control the poor.

Also religious beliefs or unscientific, you can't provide evidence for a repeatable experiment to prove the existence of God.

We should only believe what we have scientific evidence for.

Therefore, God doesn't exist.

That's how Marxist would suggest, that's what a Marxist would suggest.

Now let me see how well we can recall his argument.

Pause the video and try to copy down the following statements using the letters, the words I apologise.

Now, pause the video and copy out the following statements.

Use the words down the side to fill in the blanks, see how well you can recall the argument without going back and cheating.

When you're ready unpause to resume.

Now a bigger challenge for we, try to copy and complete these parts of the argument without having keywords and without having the other words like on the previous slide.

When you're finished you may unpause and resume.

So I'm going to get you to do is have a look at the different parts of this argument.

First of all I'd like you to draw a picture that helps represent it.

I've put an example only on the first.

Then I want you to explain whether or not you are convinced and the reasons why? So the first part of the argument I've written lots of religions tell stories to make poor people feel better.

Now I could be convinced by this argument.

Christians are taught to look after the poor.

There're a lot of parts of Christianity that talk about the poor being really important and the poor will inherit the earth.

In certain terms of it, essentially saying that the poor will get to go to heaven.

So it seems reasonable to say that actually religions do tell stories that will appeal to people who are poor.

And what I'd like you to do is pause the video to copy out this table and complete the task on the table.

We'll then go through some of the answers in a minute.

Although actually there is no right or wrong to this because it's whether or not you are convinced.

Do you think there is evidence to support that point or not? Now then, let's go through my answers.

Now, remember you might have written something different and that's perfectly okay.

But let's see what I've written and see if you can add anything to your answers in a different kind of pen.

So in the first part of the argument, I've said that Christians the taught to look after the poor.

And what I mean by this is actually it backs up the argument I agree with it.

It says that lots of religions tell stories to make all people feel better.

Most religions have teachings to look after the poor.

So the second part, lot's of religious beliefs support the rich and powerful people.

Well, traditionally the poor would pay a tithe to rich landowners.

So once again, religion has traditionally supported the rich and actually there's a lot of money in certain religions.

Even if you just look at the buildings that worship takes place in.

Therefore religion has probably been created by the rich to control the poor.

Well, in this part I don't necessarily agree with the statement.

Nearly all founders of the main religions were penniless or poor themselves.

And even if you take somebody like Buddha, he was supposedly a Prince to begin with.

He actually gave up all is work and goods, because he realised that having things didn't mean anything.

So in the next card the augment states, you also you can't prove religious beliefs through things things like science.

Well, a religious person might ask that religion is about faith, even when there is no proof.

So on the one hand, this argument is true.

You can't prove it, but in a sense a religious wouldn't be bothered by that part of the argument.

We should only believe what we have scientific evidence for.

Now here I would say I can't proof with science that love exists, but I that it's real.

And therefore there are some things that we can't prove with science.

Therefore the conclusion is that God doesn't exist.

Well, I'm agnostic.

I'm not necessarily convinced by this.

I don't think we have proof that God does exist and also equally we don't have proof that God doesn't exist.

So for the final activity, pause the video and complete the task that are written here.

And finally, how did you do in this final answer? I'm giving you my model answer, you might want to use a different pen to add bits or give yourself some ticks where you've done well.

But remember once again, this is my opinion.

You might have written something different and it's much more about being able to explain your answer than what your answer is.

So my answer is this I think that Marx is right, because it's clear that religion has controlled society for a long time.

For example, schools are still expected to deliver collective worship.

I know it was an RE teacher that actually all schools whether they are religious schools or not, are expected to have assembly so that there are prayers and there are hymns.

Therefore it suggests that religion is still taking a big part of society and controlling it.

Another example would be that there are lots of very poor people that are religious, which suggests that maybe Marx was right.

Religion is used to oppress the poor and keep them poor.

I could say, however, on the other hand that I do not think Marx gives a convincing argument against God's existence.

Because there are other things in the world that we cannot see but we know it exists.

So well ultimately Marx isn't really trying to dispute God's existence, it's almost irrelevant.

Marx's issue is the way that religion controls people.

So ultimately this said argument isn't necessarily a good one to argue against the existence of God.

But it is a good argument against the existence of religion.

Before you go don't forget to complete the quiz.

Once again, it's been a real pleasure teaching you today.

And if you're interested in any more philosophy of religion or sociology then stay tuned in to my further videos.