Secularisation Notes

Defining secularisation
Bryan Wilson argues that secularisation is the process by which
religious institutions, actions and practices hurt their social
significance. There are four key elements to his argument.
The statistical argument

Wilson focuses on statistical evidence relating to religious institutions and their
activity. The strongest evidence for secularisation in the UK comes from churchattendance
statistics. According to the 1851 Census approximately 40% of the
population go to church in the UK. By 1997 this had dropped to 8.2%. The
only exception is northerly Ireland. Attendance at religious ceremonies such as
baptisms, communion and chit have also dramatically fallen. The decline
in church marriages (down to 50% in 1997), the rising divorce rate, the increase
in cohabitation and children born outdoors of marriage are seen as evidence that
religion and its example value-system exerts little influence today.
The critique of religious statistics
However, interpretivist sociologists extract these statistics should be treated with
caution for the following reasons.
Statistics relating to the previous vitamin C are probably unreliable because
sophisticated data-collection practices were non in place.




Contemporary statistics may not be reliable because diametrical religious
organisations employ different counting methods.
Bellah questions the validity of such statistics because heap who attend
church are not necessarily practising religious belief, whilst those who do
turn over may not see the need to attend. Religion is a private experience for
many and consequently can not be reliably or scientifically measured.
There is a great deal of contradictory statistical evidence. Membership of
NRMs has lift substantially in the last ten years curiously amongst the
young. The number of ethnic-minority religions in the UK has also increased,
e.g. there are doubly as many Muslims in the UK as Methodists.
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